1998:557 - DEMESNE, Roscommon

Trial-trenching was carried out at Demesne townland, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, for five days from 28 October 1998. The proposed development involved the construction of twelve houses. In the course of the planning process a hitherto unrecorded and unclassified earthen feature, a possible tree ring, was noted within the area of the development, and it was recommended that this feature be examined by an archaeologist under licence before the commencement of the development.

The site is of irregular shape, slightly more angular than circular, with several ill-defined, poorly preserved banks and ditches broadly enclosing a roughly square area. The apparent lack of accomplishment in the execution of these enclosing elements, coupled with the lack of clarity in deciphering them, makes a confident classification of the site as a tree ring impossible. Trees occupy just half of the site, and they were not planted on a continuous bank. Several gaps appear in the banks, and neither the line of the trees nor of the unplanted banks follows a well-executed shape.

The excavation of a single trial-trench through the feature did not produce conclusive evidence that this site was archaeologically significant. It did reveal evidence of human activity, and the indications are that the feature was man-made, as a deliberate cut and redeposited bank material were noted, but the remains do not satisfactorily fit the accepted classification criteria of a tree ring.

The exact function of the site could not be ascertained from the finds, which were almost exclusively of modern to 18th-century date and were highly mixed in two of the eight excavated contexts. A possible piece of worked flint was discovered in the topsoil side by side with modern glass and clay pipe fragments.

Purcell House, Oranmore, Co. Galway