County: Clare Site name: BALLYGIRREEN (AR49)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0284
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen and Graham Hull, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Ring-ditch
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 536511m, N 669809m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.775574, -8.940966
During monitoring of surface-stripping on the line of the N18/19 Road Improvement Scheme, a circular feature (100) was found on the western side of a valley containing a bog. It was a circular ditch or gully 8m in diameter, U-sectioned, up to 1m wide and 0.4m deep: the western side was narrower and shallower, and there was an apparent break, 0.05m wide, but this side appeared to have been over-machined during topsoil-stripping. The fill was a relatively uniform orange/brown silty sand with frequent stones (0.05–0.35m in diameter).
The north-eastern edge of this feature was intersected by a linear gully (101) running north-east/south-west. It was narrower, shallower and more flat-bottomed than Gully 100, and the fill suggested that it had silted up naturally. It stopped just short of 100, and then continued again inside for about 1m. It appeared to post-date 100.
An ovoid pit, 1.16m x 0.8m and 0.16m deep, was found in the centre of gully 100. There was no trace of any mound material, and no artefacts were found.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Templeogue, Dublin 6W and 14 Mill House, Mill Road, Ennis, Co. Clare
