County: Sligo Site name: ARDKEERIN, Riverstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 27:120 Licence number: 99E0631
Author: Gerry Walsh
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 573808m, N 819686m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.125553, -8.400695
Pre-development testing was undertaken on the site of a proposed development in Ardkeerin, Riverstown, Co. Sligo, where a ringfort is situated. Five test-trenches were excavated by machine within the site.
In all trenches, which were 1.5m wide and varied between 14m and 25m long, a sod/topsoil layer directly overlay a natural, light brown/orange boulder clay, apart from in Trench 3. Here the stratigraphy was very disturbed. At the eastern end the sod, 0.12m thick, overlay a mix of white and brown mortar 0.24m thick Underlying the mortar was a mid-brown clay/topsoil 0.15m thick. This directly overlay the natural, brown/orange boulder clay. At the western end the sod, 0.1m thick, directly overlay a gravel and concrete rubble fill layer 0.4m thick. The upper stone of a rotary quern was recovered from this modern fill layer. The natural, brown/orange boulder clay directly underlay this.
Except for the quernstone, recovered from a disturbed modern fill layer, no archaeological features or finds were noted in any of the test-trenches.
Rathbawn Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
