The discovery began when Regional Environmental Manager John Williams spotted unusual features during tree harvesting in Edergole townland, approximately 9km northeast of Donegal town. What started as the identification of a single site quickly expanded into something far more significant; as the trees came down and the landscape opened up, an entire forgotten settlement complex emerged from the forest floor, prompting archaeologist Emmet Byrnes from the Forestry Service to conduct a preliminary assessment that November.

The plantation sits on steep ground along the western slopes of the Corraber River valley, where peaty soils overlay carboniferous slate and sandstone. Whilst Ordnance Survey maps from the 19th century showed only two small farmsteads in this area, the clear-fell revealed a third, completely unrecorded 18th or 19th century farmstead complete with a byre and limekiln. Along a north-south ridge where this central farmstead stood, archaeologists documented an impressive array of structures: two conjoined cottages built from turf, a walled garden plot known as a ‘garraí’, seven small clearance cairns, and at least two, possibly three, booleying huts; temporary shelters traditionally used during summer months when cattle were moved to upland pastures.

The booleying huts are particularly intriguing, representing a pastoral practice that was once widespread across Ireland but has largely vanished from the landscape. One small circular hut near the northern farmstead measures about 3 metres in diameter, with turf and earth walls still standing half a metre high and an entrance facing southeast. These modest structures, built for seasonal occupation during transhumance, offer a tangible connection to Ireland’s agricultural past, when communities moved their livestock to mountain pastures each summer, living simply whilst tending their herds. The Edergole site provides a remarkably complete picture of rural life in pre-Famine Donegal, preserved inadvertently beneath commercial forestry and revealed only through the chance observations of an attentive forester.