County: Mayo Site name: BEHY-GLENULRA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Mr. S. Caulfield, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Enclosures and Field Systems
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 503192m, N 839902m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.298698, -9.487263
Excavations this season revealed about a dozen post holes to take stakes approximately 7-10cm in diameter but no discernible pattern emerged from the location of these. In contrast to the 1970 season a number of artifacts were found. Approximately 70-100 chips of flint were found and two knife-like objects of flint. Also a poorly shaped scraper of chert was found. Two chips of stone show polishing abrasions and presumably are fragments of polished stone axes. About a dozen sherds of pottery were found all in very poor condition but it is possible to recognise round-bottomed Neolithic pottery among the sherds. The finds came from close in against both sides of the 5m bank of peat which still overlies the centre of the site and suggests that the area still under peat should be fairly rich in finds.
Five to six linear miles of walls were traced in this Behy-Glenulra settlement and approximately half of this total was surveyed. The plan of the system shows a very regular layout of parallel field walls forming large fields. Two other enclosures similar to the one at present being excavated were also located.
