County: Galway Site name: TUAM: Galway Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E1523
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: Burial and Structure
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 542127m, N 751579m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.511011, -8.872503
Pre-development testing was carried out on 18 and 19 November 2004 at a site on Galway Road, Tuam, Co. Galway. The site was located within the archaeological constraint for Tuam town (SMR 29:99) and was adjacent to the medieval St Mary's Cathedral.
The testing comprised the excavation (by machine) of four trenches, which measured 13m, 3.4m, 2.3m and 1.75m long respectively, 1.3–1.6m wide and 0.9–1.35m deep. Below a modern concrete floor on the surface was a layer of cobbles, above rubble fill, above a disturbed layer which probably represented the original topsoil on the site, above sterile natural subsoil. The testing revealed evidence of modern activity only. Only modern artefacts were recovered.
Two walls were found in one of the trenches. The foundation of the first wall, located near the north end of the site, contained red-brick fragments, modern pottery sherds and eleven disarticulated bone fragments, nine of which consisted of human bone. The wall was in line with the rear wall of the building to the east of the site, which is part of a terrace. The first edition of the OS 6-inch map from 1838 appears to show the terrace continuing onto this site. This evidence, along with the modern artefacts found in its foundation, appear to date the wall to the 18th or early 19th century. The presence of human bone fragments within the loose rubble foundation of the wall could be the result of the wall having been constructed over a burial. It could also be explained by the rubble foundation material having been sourced nearby, possibly in the adjacent graveyard. The site currently awaits further investigation to establish the origin of the human bone.
61 An Cladrach, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
