County: Roscommon Site name: CLOONMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0533
Author: John Ó Néill, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 579455m, N 765120m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.635477, -8.310643
Assessments were carried out at a number of sites with archaeological potential along the route of a proposed realignment of the N5 between Scramoge and Cloonmore. At Cloonmore, test-trenches were opened perpendicular to the line of the road at the margins of a raised bog, to test for the presence of archaeological features.
Much of the bog system of which Cloonmore is a part has been heavily drained with little obvious saturation of the surface deposits. In most cases, the upper peats appeared to have been modified for use as rough grazing, and the area is criss-crossed by a network of deep field drains that ultimately empty into the Shannon network to the east.
On the western side of the bog, a 14m by 2m test-trench was opened. It revealed 0.5m of highly sedimentised fen peats overlying 0.7m of undrained fen peats. These were deposited directly onto blue-grey lake marls.
On the eastern side of the bog, a 20m by 2m test-trench was opened. It revealed 0.5m of drained and sedimentised fen peats overlying glacial till. Some modern masonry was present in the peat, suggesting that a deliberate attempt was being made to reclaim this portion of the bog.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
