2024:576 - Carrig Nua, Tulla and Bunavory, Tulla, Clare

Monitoring was undertaken of a residential development at the Carrig Nua housing development in the townlands of Tulla and Bunavory, south of the L4094 on the western side of Tulla village. The location of a levelled enclosure (CL035-021) is on the northern boundary of the development site.

Although no construction is proposed for the location of monument CL035-021, it was necessary to undertake some limited groundworks here as part of the development. A boundary is required across part of the monument in order to secure the housing estate and separate it from neighbouring farmland. Additionally, as the buffer zone (including the enclosure itself) will remain as green space within the housing development, it was necessary to level areas of dumped rock and waste in order to make the ground safe. It was thought possible that some of the mounded rock includes the bulldozed remains of the monument, mixed with imported dumped material.

Topsoil across the site was generally seen to overlie glacial till, with dumps of 20^th-century waste present in several areas. The area of the monument was examined in detail and no evidence was seen of any archaeological material. Bedrock ridges are exposed in this area, along with several large heaps of broken rock, clearly mechanically moved. It is not clear whether the monument has been demolished, or whether it was never present, with the hachured enclosure shown on historic maps simply reflecting an area of raised bedrock. This area was archaeologically monitored and the observed topsoil was typically 0.1m to 0.2m thick and overlay limestone bedrock, often broken, at or near the surface. The bedrock was interspersed with orangish-brown and brown silty clay (glacial till).

No remains of archaeological significance were encountered.