County: Galway Site name: KINALEHIN FRIARY AND ABBEYVILLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0312
Author: Tadhg O'Keefe, Department of Archaeology, UCD
Site type: Earthwork
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 572802m, N 705802m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.102100, -8.406143
An open field on the south side of the ruins of the Franciscan monastery of Kinalehin has a complex of earthworks that may represent the cells and cloister of the Carthusian monastery that was founded at this site in the 13th century. A preliminary programme of soil sampling, using a technique devised in the University of Bristol, was carried out in September 1998 in collaboration with Professor Mick Aston and Dr Mark Horton (Bristol). Fist-sized soil samples were taken at 5m intervals and analysed for their heavy-metal content (zinc, cobalt etc.). Concentration of traces of these metals indicated areas of human occupation, and these in turn indicated possible cell sites.
Editor's note: This summary, though of work carried out during 1998, was received too late for inclusion in the bulletin of that year.
Belfield, Dublin 4
