County: Galway Site name: TRUSKA, Manninmore, Manninbeg
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Finbar McCormick, Dept of Archaeology, Queen's University Belfast
Site type: Midden
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 460695m, N 745766m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.443553, -10.096979
The beaches to the north-west of the village of Ballyconeely contain a large number of shell midden sites. A majority have been destroyed and most survive as conflated scatters of shells and stone. The archaeological matrices in which they were originally located have been removed by wind erosion. This wind erosion seems to have been precipitated by the destruction of the machair turf cover by overgrazing. In some areas, however, the middens partially survive in situ and the purpose of these very limited excavations was to try and retrieve dating material from some of the eroding faces of the midden. Several midden sections were drawn and sampled but only 2 or 3 samples provided adequate material from dating. It is hoped to map the location of these middens during the coming summer.
