County: Clare Site name: BALLYLEAAN (BGE 3/32/2)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1478
Author: Graham Hull and Astrid-Lesley Nathan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 526057m, N 660744m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.692784, -9.093832
This site was examined as part of Bord Gáis Éireann’s Pipeline to the West. It was characterised by a burnt mound overlying two pits and a pit recut. The mound measured 20m (south-west/north-east) by 8m and was 0.2m thick. A small stream, in boggy ground, was adjacent to the mound.
One of the pits was sub-oval with steep, uneven edges and a concave base. The cut measured 2m north–south by 1.4m and was 0.45m deep. It cut into natural yellow clay and was truncated at the north by a recut. Five fills were identified. The fills were an accumulation of first a clayey silt and then deposits of burnt-mound composition, probably residual from the mound. One of the fills was an organic material close to peat in consistency. The feature was last filled with a hard, grey, clayey silt. The recut pit was sub-oval, had gradually sloping sides and a concave base, and measured 1.57m north–south by 1.52m by 0.45m deep. Four fills were identified. The fills were a grey silt with substantial burnt stone inclusions and were rich in charcoal, with some redeposited, natural, yellow clay.
The second pit or trough measured 1.85m by 1.42m and was 0.4m deep. The sides were sharp, steep, regular and well defined. The base was fairly flat. Seven fills were identified. These were variations of grey clayey silt, containing residual burnt-mound material, burnt stones, moderate to frequent charcoal inclusions and redeposited yellow clay nodules.
The mound and pits were sealed by c. 1m of alluvial silt and peat.
No artefacts were recovered from the site. Samples were taken from the mound, the pits and the peat for radiocarbon dating and environmental assessment.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
