County: Galway Site name: KILTARTAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA122-104 Licence number: 02E1749 ext.
Author: Dominic Delany, Dominic Delany & Associates
Site type: Church and Graveyard
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 545046m, N 705971m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.101486, -8.820604
A second phase of testing was carried out on 19 January 2004 on the site of a proposed extension to Kiltartan graveyard. The site is located within the area of archaeological constraint around this possible Early Christian ecclesiastical site. Some human remains were identified immediately outside the existing graveyard boundary wall during the initial phase of testing in November 2002. This second phase of testing was to establish the extent of the human remains and whether there were any in situ burials present.
An area measuring c. 3m2 was stripped of topsoil using a JCB excavator fitted with a toothless bucket and then cleaned by hand. The crushed remains of two skeletons, an adult and a juvenile, were exposed 0.5m below the existing ground level. It was not clear whether the burials took place outside the existing graveyard boundary wall or whether they were isolated from the graveyard as a result of a slight realignment of the graveyard boundaries. The stripped area around the skeletons was cleaned down to the natural and no further archaeological material was present. The graveyard extension plan indicates that it is proposed to run a new pathway alongside the existing boundary wall at this location. The proposed new burial plots will not impact on the burials discovered during testing. Consequently it was recommended that the burials should be preserved in situ and that all subsurface works associated with the proposed development should be monitored.
Unit 3, Howley Court, Oranmore, Co. Galway
