County: Clare Site name: GAURUS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0262
Author: Carleton Jones
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 536010m, N 677827m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.847571, -8.949958
Test-trenching in advance of house construction took place at Gaurus, Ennis, Co. Clare, because it is adjacent to a possible enclosure, and a possible ring-barrow was recorded just to the east in the archaeological impact assessment.
Three trenches were excavated across the site with a JCB. They measured 27m, 27.4m and 36m long. All were excavated to a depth of 0.4–0.6m. The stratigraphy was the same across the site: a thin layer of dark brown topsoil on top of a glacial-derived substrate of clay with sand, pebbles and boulders.
No archaeological features were encountered, and the only finds on the site are very recent and were all located in the topsoil. Additionally, the pattern and morphology of the existing and destroyed field walls on the site do not suggest that they are of any great antiquity. Despite the proximity of the possible encclosure and the possible ring-barrow, the site does not appear to have any archaeological deposits. Inspection of the possible ring-barrow during these investigations suggests that it is probably a very recent feature created by dumps of material from the adjacent quarry.
63 Cregaun, Tobarteascain, Ennis, Co. Clare
