County: Galway Site name: KILMURVEY, Inis Mór
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 110:44 Licence number: 96E0149
Author: Heather A. King, National Monuments Service
Site type: Midden
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 481976m, N 710032m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.127755, -9.763553
Test-trenches were excavated in April 1996 at the Early Christian monastic site of Kilmurvey, Inishmore, Co. Galway, prior to the construction of a visitor facility and parking area for Dun Aonghus. The trenches were located to the north and south of the tearoom, which is situated in the centre of the monastic site.
Midden material had been noted in disturbed ground in the small field to the north of the tearoom, and a hone, a bronze thimble and a large fragment of a disc quern had been recovered from the spoil in 1995. Two trenches were opened in this area, one running north-south for the entire length of the field (c. 25m) and a second at right angles to this. Both were excavated to natural. The stratigraphy consisted of a uniform brown sandy loam, c. 0.45–0.6m deep, overlying natural rock which was fissured in places. Three substantial deposits of midden material were noted but, while they all contained large quantities of shell and small amounts of animal bone, all the finds were of modern pottery and glass.
The remaining test-trenches were opened to the south and east of the tearoom. The area immediately to the south of the tearoom consists of an enclosed yard which is approximately 1.3m higher than the ground level further to the south but is at the same level as the lane to the west. Testing in this yard showed that the underlying rock was quite close to the surface on the east but that there was made-up ground of dumped rock, fragments of Liscannor flags and brick from the demolition of cottages that formerly stood along the south and west sides of the yard. As the wastewater disposal pipe is to run to the east and along the south side of the monastic enclosure, six further trenches were opened but revealed no archaeological stratigraphy.
One trench was opened to the north of the proposed pipeline for comparative purposes as there was a surprising lack of stratigraphy or finds; a pit located in this trench contained animal bone, shell, one worked bone artefact and one piece of cut antler.
51 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2
