County: Mayo Site name: RUSHBROOK EAST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 101:71 Licence number: 98E0193 ext.
Author: Paula King for Gerry Walsh
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 534212m, N 772934m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.701963, -8.996325
The site, a roughly circular, flat-topped mound, was on land owned by Claremorris Golf Club. It measured c. 29m in diameter. Preliminary testing by Gerry Walsh identified a ditch at the northern and western sides of the monument.
Further investigation entailed the excavation by hand of five cuttings. The cuttings were positioned to examine the ditch and the interior of the monument in detail. As the findings from the excavation of these cuttings were inconclusive, in consultation with Dúchas the remaining area of the site was stripped under archaeological supervision using a mini-digger.
It was found that the mound was a natural feature composed of gravel and boulder clay. A ditch encircled its base. The ditch averaged 3.2m wide and reached a maximum depth of c. 1m. It was filled primarily with deposits of rounded limestone mixed with brown loam. Evidence indicated that the ditch had been widened.
Rabbits had substantially disturbed the upper 0.75m of the ditch fill. Some landscaping attributable to the development of the golf course was also in evidence. Finds retrieved from the ditch were a number of pieces of iron slag, animal bones, golf balls and rabbit snares.
Cultivation furrows cut the subsoil in the interior of the enclosure. The furrows averaged 0.4–0.6m wide and reached a maximum depth of 0.1–0.2m. Finds retrieved from the furrows included modern pottery, glass and a 1955 sixpenny piece. Two relatively large sherds and a number of fragments of prehistoric pottery were also retrieved from the interior of the enclosure. Rose Cleary, UCC, has identified the sherds as being similar to Western Neolithic pottery. Unfortunately they were not retrieved from a secure context, and a date for the interior of the enclosure cannot be inferred from them.
In short the excavation revealed that the mound was a natural gravel rise encircled by a ditch. No features, finds or datable material were recovered that positively indicate the date and function of the monument.
Rathbawn, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
