County: Sligo Site name: BUNNACRANAGH/SANDYHILL/BELLAHY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0573 ext.
Author: Richard Crumlish, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 548118m, N 804707m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.989020, -8.791111
Monitoring of the laying of a pipeline, the upgrade of the Lough Talt Water Supply Scheme (Phase 2), from Curry Water Tower south to Bellahy was carried out between 22 January and 15 February 2001. The pipeline ran between an existing water-tower 0.5km south of Curry village and the northern outskirts of Bellahy village, on the Mayo border. Monitoring of Phase 1 of the development was carried out by Chris Reid (Excavations 2000, No. 879). The current monitoring was undertaken under an extension to the original licence.
The pipeline was 4km long and 0.15m in diameter, and its installation was facilitated by surface excavation and directional drilling. Most of the pipeline route (3.2km) was located within the N17, the main Galway–Sligo road, which was constructed in the 1980s. The final 800m at the Bellahy end of the pipeline ran along a tarred boreen for 215m, and through fields (at the back of a line of houses along the east side of Bellahy’s main street) for its remaining length. Surface excavation was carried out along 2.1km of the pipeline length, the remainder being directionally drilled. The trench excavated was 0.5–1.2m wide and 1.2–1.5m deep. The directional drilling necessitated the excavation of 21 pits at regular intervals. They were 2.3–5.8m long, 0.9–3.3m wide and 1.1–2m deep.
The stratigraphy encountered consisted of topsoil and the tarred road on the surface, above backfill (hard core, gravel, rubble, roadfill), light orange/brown natural subsoil, grey boulder clay and natural sand. Modern services (telecom, water) were visible here and there along the trench. A modern land drain was visible in one of the pits near the southern end of the pipeline.
The findings represented natural undisturbed stratigraphy in the fields at the southern end of the pipeline. Along the remaining length it consisted of backfill where the road had been built up, or natural subsoil/boulder clay/natural sand where the road had been cut into the landscape.
Purcell House, Claregalway Road, Oranmore, Co. Galway
