County: Galway Site name: DUNMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0252
Author: Niall Gregory, for Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 550765m, N 763389m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.618016, -8.744146
A pre-development test excavation was conducted between 23 and 25 June 1999 before the construction of a supermarket and associated facilities. The site was within the zone of medieval archaeology. It lay between an Augustinian abbey and a fording point across the adjacent river. Six 1m-wide test-trenches were dug on the site. These revealed 1–1.5m of landfill, before 1m of river marl was encountered. The base of the trenches consisted of river gravels.
Potential archaeology was encountered on the site's southern aspect. This consisted of a 1.5m-wide east-west-orientated ditch. It lay 9m to the north of the existing structure of the abbey, beneath 0.4m of topsoil. The composition of the ditch's fill showed natural sedimentation above a shallow, charcoal-rich basal layer. No artefacts were recovered. The proximity of the ditch to the abbey would suggest some association between them.
25 Westpark, Blessington, Co. Wicklow
