The survey of the proposed dig site was carried out on Thursday and Friday by LTU Utility Location Intelligence, based in Oldham, England, and was organised through Precision Industrial Services Ltd, at Campsie Industrial Estate.
Technician Mike Langton, flew over from England for the two days to operate the radar scanning equipment and to analyse the results on site, and despite the biting winter weather on Thursday got straight to work trudging across the water-saturated field dragging the scanner to the highest point on the rath site where Society members discussed where they wanted him to scan and what features they hoped to find.
Member Roger McCorkell said: "As the scanner was dragged back and forward across the field a number of features started to appear. A dog leg shaped feature running for about 12 metres was found. It was about one metre wide and at least one metre deep and about one metre across. This could be a souterrain," he said.
"A second feature appeared. It seemed to be cavern with a dome shaped roof and was at least 3 metres across. A tunnel appeared to run away from the cavern for about five metres Another feature on the opposite side seemed to show what may be the entrance to the rath," he said enthusiastically.
The rath itself was scanned, starting where the team unsuccessfully dug the investigative trenches back in 2005.
"We could follow it as it came round in a circle over the top of the high ground but then it faded out. We picked it up again on the far side near to what we thought could be the entrance to the rath.
"A full mapping of the whole site was then carried out by a team from Percision Survey Services which will show the exact position of all the features found. A 3-D mapping of the underground features will be produced to show dimensions.
"It is hoped that when the survey results are analysed by LTU more features may be shown. Even if nothing new appears we have plenty to investigate in our dig next June and there may even be more to investigate in future digs. In the meantime our Dig Committee is very pleased with the results so far," Roger added.