County: Galway Site name: GRAIGUE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Martin Fitzpatrick
Site type: Souterrain
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 563158m, N 718130m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.212316, -8.551556
In September 1990 a souterrain was discovered by a mechanical excavator working on Loughrea Golf Course. There was no surface evidence for any associated antiquity. The souterrain as discovered consisted of a wide and high gallery running in a south-west to north-east direction before leading through a narrow low 'creep' into another gallery running almost at right angles across its end. The shorter gallery was blocked by collapsed material at its south-east end.
Excavation was carried out between 15–26 October 1990 in an effort to discover the extent of the blocked gallery and if the original entrance was at its south-east end.
Cuttings across and extending south-eastwards for 6m from the blocked end of the shorter gallery were made. The fill was found to consist mostly of rubble and a light brown/yellowish clay. The gallery's side walls were uncovered, tapering and widening on two occasions as it extended south-eastward. The floor of the gallery rose gradually from north-west to south-east resulting in the height of the gallery (as seen from the surviving sidewalls) reducing from 1.9m at north-west to c. 0.55m, 5m to south-east. The eastern side wall ended after a total of 5.1m from where excavation began, but the western wall continued for a further 0.8m. Traces of what may have been a closing wall across the gallery were discovered here. The original entrance seems to have been at this point, and to have consisted of a low step down, onto the downward-sloping floor of the gallery. This entrance portion was probably never roofed until perhaps 3m to the north-east, when the narrowing suggests there may have been some form of doorway.
One artefact of archaeological significance found was a much-corroded iron spearhead discovered about 0.35m deep in disturbed topsoil (thick dark-brown clay) near the original entrance but outside the walls of the gallery. Other finds consisted of early 20th-century glass fragments and rubbish indicating the souterrain was open some sixty or so years ago—local informants confirmed this.
New Line, Athenry, Co. Galway
