2002:1997 - EYREPHORT, Galway

Background
An east west running electrical cable was buried using a plough in the td. of Eyrephort Co. Galway in August 2002. This cable will bring an electrical supply to the offshore islands of Inish Turk and Inish Turbott. Because of the 80m proximity of the line of the cable north of the site of the Eyrephort burial, which was exposed in sand dunes here in 1947, Dúchas, the Heritage Service requested that the E.S.B. contract an archaeologist to monitor the laying of the line.

When the writer arrived on site a 24m x 2m area had already been dug by mechanical digger to an average depth of 2.5m through a natural shingle bank situated between the dunes and the foreshore at the S. end of Trawnaman in Eyrephort. Although the section face was not exposed clearly, due to the loose nature of the shingle, enough was exposed to determine that the shingle bank sat directly on rock outcrop at that point and that no archaeological horizons were present. Later, a long shallow trench, circa 1m wide and between 50cm and 1m deep was dug through the intertidal zone which extended for 29m through the beach to the low water mark. Sand and water rolled gravel was removed from here and this material sat directly on natural rock outcrop. No archaeological horizons were present here either.

Above the beach line a plough was used. This machine ploughs the cable through the ground so that the trench is cut and the cable buried simultaneously. The width of the line dug by the plough was circa 10cm. It was possible to examine the section cut through by the plough by standing directly behind the plough as it moved. The depth of the trench varied greatly as the underlying rock was found to be very close to the surface in many places. While the plough achieved depths of circa 1m in places the average depth through the dunes was circa 40cm. The line also cut through blanket bog for a short stretch at east and the average depth through the bog was circa 1m. A 1920s drystone field boundary which extends in an East west direction from immediately above the beach, divides the O’Toole farm from that of the Pryce farm (pers. com. Eddie Pryce). It is three courses high and survives to a depth of circa 40cm. Most of the line of the cable runs parallel to this boundary but 1m – 1.5m south of it. The sand dune has built up and around this low wall in the intervening years, consequently burying most of it. The plough therefore was mainly digging through an accumulation of sand that had only built up in the past 80 years. Where the cable line crosses the boundary wall a thin grass cover immediately overlies rock outcrop.The cable laying was monitored for a distance of 240m inand.

No indications of archaeological horizons were visible. This method of laying the cable by ploughing it into the ground made a proper archaeological evaluation difficult as the sides of the cutting collapsed a matter of seconds after the plough had cut the trench. The author is confident nonetheless that no archaeological deposits were exposed or cut through by the plough in the area of the dunes. In the bogland area the monitoring was less effective as the trench frequently seeped water making an archaeological evaluation less effective. Nothing was observed in the trench, however this does not totally exclude the possibility that archaeology was present.

Summary
No archaeological finds or deposits were observed during the archaeological monitoring of the laying of E.S.B. cables int the inter tidal zone or in the townland of Eyrephort, Co Galway in August and September 2002. The line of the cable which runs East West, is located 80m N of the site of the Eyrephort burial of 1947 and poses no threat to the former burial’s location or any possible associated deposits.

A fortunate consequence of the presence of an archaeologist in the dunes, undertaking monitoring near the location of the Eyrephort burial site was that an eroding hearth was observed by the author,in the immediate vicinity of the original site of the Eyrephort Burial, a mere 4m to the south of the site of the burial). It contains quantities of oyster shell, burnt stone and charcoal.It would be useful to survey this feature in relation to the find spot of the burial. It would also be important to sample the feature for the purposes of dating.

General comments
Due to its low impact the use of the plough in burying the cable was helpful in the overall conservation of the dunes but not a great digging tool as it buries cable almost as fast as it digs the trench for the cable.

Normally a development as significant as the bringing of electrification to an Island should have necessitated the compilation of an Environmental Impact Assessment and an Archaeological Assessment would have formed part of that. The monitoring arrangements for the laying of the landline was an eleventh hour response to the concerns of local landowners.

When the archaeologist arrived on site work had already taken place on the laying of the underwater cable from the mainland to Inishturk without archaeological monitoring and some ground work had also taken place without archaeological monitoring.

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