County: Galway Site name: HEADFORD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0867
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: Earthwork
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 526511m, N 747133m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.469115, -9.106849
Pre-development testing was carried out between 29 June and 1 July 2004 on a site in advance of its development at Headford, Co. Galway. The proposed development site contained an unclassified earthwork (SMR 42:147). The Galway Inventory described the site as possibly a circular house or a landscape feature associated with the nearby Headford Castle, an 18th/19th-century mansion located c. 40m south of the earthwork. The monument consisted of a circular enclosure that measured 8m in diameter. The enclosing element consisted of a low grass-covered bank that measured 1–1.5m wide and 0.5–0.7m high. The bank enclosed an area of c. 3m in diameter.
The testing comprised the manual excavation of one trench 3m long, 1m wide and 0.5–0.8m deep through the feature. The trench revealed topsoil above a loose layer of soil, mortar, rocks and stones, red-brick fragments and slates. This rubble layer measured up to 0.3m thick and contained a clay-pipe stem, three small animal-bone fragments and two small rusted metal nails. Below the rubble layer was peat and a rubble wall/foundation. The peat was located on either side of the rubble wall/foundation. The wall/foundation was composed of rubble, mortar and occasional red-brick fragments and measured 2–2.2m wide and 0.3m thick. Below the peat at one end of the trench was limestone bedrock.
The wall/foundation appeared to be of 18th- or 19th-century date and may have been the foundation of a feature from which cut/dressed stone was removed. It may have been a landscape feature associated with the adjacent Headford Castle, in whose grounds it would have been located. It was recommended that the feature be retained within any proposed development.
61 An Cladrach, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
