County: Galway Site name: KILLEANY, Inismór
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0306
Author: Billy Quinn, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: Midden
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 488585m, N 707653m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.107798, -9.664023
Testing took place of a site identified by Anne Connolly in an environmental impact assessment of May 1998 for the Inismór–Aran Island Water Supply Improvement Scheme. The site was described as a possible structure situated adjacent to the existing pumphouse at the south terminus of the proposed rising main in Killeany townland. It comprises a low, L-shaped stone bank covered with grass and moss, is orientated in a north–south direction and measures c. 10m x 1.5m.
Pre-development testing consisted of the mechanical excavation of three trenches measuring 12m x 1m. Excavation exposed a small, natural, ridge-like concentration of stones to the north of Trench A. The stones were randomly heaped and too loose to indicate deliberate construction. A concentration of seashells exposed in all trenches confirms the location of a shell midden reported to be in the vicinity of the church at Cill Charna. These middens can date to any period from the Mesolithic to the 20th century, but the presence of modern finds including clay pipe stem fragments and an iron spike would suggest a more recent date.
Purcell House, Oranmore, Co. Galway
