2003:1596 - ROSCOMMON: Cloonbracknagh, Roscommon

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Roscommon Site name: ROSCOMMON: Cloonbracknagh

Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 39:43(01) Licence number: 03E1430

Author: Christopher Read, North West Archaeological Services Ltd.

Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous

Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)

ITM: E 587491m, N 764214m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.627591, -8.189096

The proposed development, which will involve the construction of eleven houses, access and related services, is within the zone of archaeological potential for Roscommon Castle. The site is bounded by stone walls to the north and west and is considered to be a likely location, based upon research by Margaret Murphy of NUI Galway, for the 16th/17th-century avenue that extended from the castle to the town. Ms Murphy contends that the avenue bisected the site of the proposed development from north to south. A blocked gateway in the wall at the northern end of the site supports this hypothesis. An assessment, including testing, was carried out.

Six trenches were excavated by machine east-west across the site in an attempt to intercept the possible north-south-oriented avenue. The trenches measured 25m long and 1.5m wide and were excavated to a depth of 0.40–0.75m, with the deposits to the north being deeper than those to the south. There was no obvious evidence for the avenue anywhere on the site. However, some evidence for archaeological activity was revealed in the form of a post-medieval dump layer in two trenches in the southern half of the site.

Cloonfad Cottage, Cloonfad, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim