1999:647 - BALLINSMAULA, Mayo

Two fulachta fiadh and two burnt spreads were excavated under this licence, which was initially issued for testing a possible fulacht fiadh identified by Gerry Walsh in the environmental impact statement for the Ballinsmaula/Knock/Claremorris Bypass. Hand-testing confirmed the suspected site as a fulacht fiadh, and the licence was extended to cover full excavation of this site and three other burnt spreads revealed by topsoil removal in the immediate vicinity of the first site. Excavation was carried out between the beginning of March and the end of August 1999.

Site I was found during topsoil removal and consisted of a thin layer of fire-shattered stones. It was a flat deposit with no suggestion of a mound structure, varied from 0.28m to 0.2m deep and measured 8m east-west by 4.8m. Although this was a deposit of burnt stone, there was very little trace of the usual sooty/charcoal matrix normally associated with such deposits. The site was crossed by drains, some of which seemed to be part of a large herringbone system draining the fields around the site. Redeposited boulder clay was noted on the north-west end of site. The site, including redeposited boulder clay, was resting in a wide hollow in the natural; it appears that all this material was dumped here to level off the field.

No archaeological features were found. Struck chert pieces including some scrapers were recovered, but none were in direct association with the burnt stone deposit.

Site II was found during topsoil removal and occupied an area measuring 26m north-south x 15m. It consisted of three discrete pockets of burnt stone revealed at the south, west and north ends of the site; the intervening area between these pockets was filled with featureless peat. Four pits were found dug into the boulder clay, three were adjacent to/under the north pocket of burnt stone, and one was adjacent to the west pocket. The site was crossed by two drains that were part of the large herringbone system crossing these fields; a third, older drain crossed the site on the west side. One of the pits, at the north end, had been slightly cut by digger toothmarks, and the west pit was truncated by the third drain. None of this disturbance was obvious before excavation, suggesting that it all occurred before road excavation. This, and the patchy nature of the burnt stone here, was probably caused by drainage and land-levelling in the area.

Site III was noted at environmental impact statement stage by Gerry Walsh and identified as a possible fulacht fiadh; test excavation was recommended. It was the classic kidney-shaped mound running north-south with a depression on its west edge indicating a possible trough. A test-trench cut from north to south across the mound revealed burnt stone, and the licence was extended to cover full excavation. A large mound of burnt stone was revealed, measuring 29.55m north-south by 18.7m with a maximum height of 0.68m. A large, nearly perfectly circular boiling pit was found on the west edge of site, with maximum dimensions of 1.5m north-south by 1.53m and 0.24m deep. Two wooden stakes were found driven into the boulder clay on the south-east and north-east edges of this pit; the cutmarks that sharpened these stakes were obvious, and they both retained bark. A smaller pit was also found; it was no more than 1m in diameter and was revealed on the south-east edge of the site. Underlying the burnt stone, more or less at the centre of the mound, were two layers of burnt timbers.

Finds from the site were pieces of struck chert and flint including some scrapers.

Site IV was discovered during topsoil removal; it was on the edge of the road-take, on a shoulder of peat left by road excavation. It was an extremely disturbed spread of burnt stone running alongside a field boundary; its maximum dimensions were 7m north-south by 4m and it rested on peat that rose to a height of 1.5m above natural. The deposit was varied, only patches of charcoal/sooty clay matrix were apparent, and most of the burnt stone was resting in peat. This and the position of the deposit on top of such a depth of peat suggested that the spread of burnt stones had been redeposited here, possibly when the farmer's drain abutting the site to south was being constructed.

Running out north from under this burnt material and visible in the section of the road excavation was a linear arrangement of timbers. These were set at a depth of 0.77m below sod level and ran northwards for a distance of 15.6m. In section the timbers suggested the presence of a bog trackway, but excavation revealed that this was not the case and that they were probably deposited by river action. No archaeological features or artefacts were found.

'Thornhill', Ballyhaunis Road, Co. Mayo