A Neolithic or Bronze Age burial cairn, estimated to be 3,000–5,000 years old, has been uncovered at The Murrins Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI), east of Omagh, during peatland restoration aimed at improving water quality in the Fane and Strule river catchments. The find will be added as a recorded monument to the Historic Record of Northern Ireland.

The discovery was made under the PEACEPLUS Protecting Shared Waters Project, which is piloting nature-based measures to improve water quality in shared catchments across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Led by NI Water, the €7.5 million initiative is supported by PEACEPLUS, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) and endorsed by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland and Ireland's Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

At The Murrins, work delivered by contractor C & B McErlean and led by Ulster Wildlife has included installing several hundred peat dams, reshaping thousands of metres of peat banks and creating hundreds of metres of protective bunds to slow water flow and cut nutrient and pollutant run-off into nearby waterways.

Before groundworks began, specialist imaging was used to flag potential archaeology. Ulster Wildlife, working with two members of the Historic Environment Division, carried out a detailed inspection and confirmed a previously unknown burial cairn in good condition. Diane Foster, Protecting Shared Waters Project Manager, said: "The project will pilot a mix of nature-based solutions (NbS) and agronomic advice in selected sub-catchments of the Strule and a community-based approach to installing NbS and water conservation measures in a selected sub-catchment of the Fane. It aims to reduce environmental pressures on shared water bodies and support their recovery to good or high ecological status. In doing so, it will also enhance the quality and reliability of raw water at abstraction points – an essential step in ensuring safe, clean drinking water for communities on both sides of the border.

"We were really excited to find out that not only had we contributed to improving raw water quality, but we had also identified a bronze age cairn and are protecting important archaeological sites.

"We are delighted to work on this important project with our key partners: Uisce Éireann, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Ulster Wildlife, The James Hutton Institute and The Rivers Trust. We will keep relevant communities informed as work progresses."

Local pupils from St Brigid's Primary School, Mountfield, near Omagh, visited the site to see the restoration in action and learn about the role of peatlands in protecting water quality, supporting wildlife and storing carbon.

The Fane River is used for drinking water abstraction and flows from County Armagh through Counties Monaghan and Louth into Dundalk Bay. The River Strule, also used for drinking water abstraction, flows through Omagh in County Tyrone.

SEUPB is the cross-border body responsible for managing EU funding programmes in Northern Ireland and the border counties. The PEACEPLUS Programme, valued at €1.14 billion over the next four years, is co-funded by the European Union, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Executive.