County: Mayo Site name: GLENULRA td
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Mr. Seamas Caulfield, Department of Archaeology/U.C.D.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 505915m, N 839779m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.298102, -9.445406
The site excavated in Glenulra lies about 250 metres east of Behy court cairn which has been excavated (1963-65). An area of 300 square metres was uncovered. The purpose of the excavation was to investigate an oval enclosure appearing from under a bank of uncut peat. The enclosure measures 25 metres x 22 metres bounded by a poorly built stone wall which would have stood about 1 metre high; it is sited in a large field bounded by stone walls.
Excavation revealed a number of stone settings, an area of charcoal, and a shallow sunken area within the enclosure. Immediately outside the enclosure to the south rough cobbling and paving and a stone-rimmed pit was found. The amount of human activity and the concentration of stones indicates that the enclosure was probably used as a dwelling area.
Over 4,000 individual chips and pebbles of quartzite and chert were recovered but only three chert chips were capable of being interpreted as artifacts. Two struck flakes of flint were also recovered.
The excavations are part of a joint research project by Dr. Michael Herity and Mr. Seamas Caulfield to study stone land boundaries in Ireland which occur underneath blanket bog.
