- Garbally Demesne, Co. Galway, Galway

In March 1955 human remains were discovered during the digging of foundations for a housing development at Garbally Demesne, near Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.¹⁵ The discovery was reported to the Museum by P.J. Hartnett and investigated by Joseph Raftery. A number of burials were still visible in situ at the time of Raftery’s visit, and lay at a depth of 0.09–0.3m below ground level in a layer of dark earth. Some of the grave-cuts were visible in the section and there did not appear to be any stone lining in any of the cuts, although the layer contained a number of large stone inclusions. According to reports, all of the burials were apparently extended and supine, aligned west/east. A bronze pin from a ringed pin (1955:29)¹⁶ of the type usually associated with spiral ring heads was found beside one of the skulls, while a worked bronze bar which may be

Fig. 7.1—Artefacts, Garbally Demesne, Co. Galway.

an unfinished pin shaft (1955:30) was discovered beside another. An iron spike (1955:31) was also found near one of the burials (Fig. 7.1). Spiral-headed ringed pins are early in the typology of ringed pins and can be dated to the sixth/seventh centuries.

15. Parish of Kilcloony, barony of Clonmacnowen. OS 6in. sheet 87; the location of the find is not marked on the map. The area is rich in archaeological remains, however, containing numerous enclosures, a castle, two possible crannogs, a graveyard and a children’s burial ground.
16. The pinhead was not recovered.