County: Mayo Site name: LEEDAUN, Claremorris
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0035
Author: Richard Gillespie
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 533422m, N 772874m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.701315, -9.008278
This excavation was carried out before pipe-laying on the Claremorris Sewerage scheme. The site had been discovered and excavated by Gerry Walsh during a previous scheme in 1995 (Appendix 2). The wayleave for the sewerage scheme was kept as far west as the level of the land would allow, to minimise the impact on the archaeological area.
The area immediately adjacent to the previous excavation was excavated by hand. Four 5m-by-12m trenches were excavated to natural subsoil or rock. The area was disturbed by modern furrows. No definite features of archaeological interest were uncovered. A number of pieces of worked chert and flint were recovered from the topsoil, and some prehistoric pottery was recovered from the surface of the subsoil.
In addition to this excavation, twenty trial-trenches measuring 3m x 12m were opened across the wayleave at 10m intervals to the north and south of the hand-excavated area. Subsequently, the areas between the trial-trenches were stripped of topsoil. The whole area was stripped to natural subsoil or rock except for three areas that merited further investigation by hand.
These were two areas with evidence of burning. The larger measured 3.5m by 1.3m by 0.12m thick. The third was a curved cut in the subsoil with associated deposits of iron slag.
Editor's Note: This site was formerly labelled 'Adjacent to Bronze Age settlement site and levelled fulacht fiadh'
Westport Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
