2004:1149 - GORTAROE, Mayo

An excavation was carried out at Gortaroe, Westport, Co. Mayo, in August/September 2004 on behalf of IDA Ireland. The site lies on the north-western fringe of Westport, adjacent to the Allergan pharmaceutical plant. It comprises 15.15ha of pasture on a smooth west-facing spur of glacial deposits, which drops sharply to small streams to the south and north-west. The development is in the vicinity of SMR 88:5, an enclosure, 88:6, a potential site, 88:12, an enclosure, and 88:13, a graveyard. Other previously unrecorded sites that more recently came to light in advance of the construction of the Westport sewerage scheme include five fulachta fiadh and a Neolithic house, all of which were excavated just outside the site boundary.

The excavation was commissioned in response to recommendations made by Tom Rogers following testing carried out in January 2003 (Excavations2003, No. 1327, 03E0121). Testing, undertaken in conjunction with a magnetometry survey, exposed two areas of burnt material to the north-west of the site on the leeward slope of a hill. The features were described as consisting of 'burnt material with fire-cracked stones and charcoal'. Both areas were at a similar topographical level and it was suggested that they probably represent fulachta fiadh.

Work was carried out on site over a four-week period ending on 8 September 2004. The mounds were manually excavated in quadrants and exposed concentrations of fire-cracked stones in a charcoal-enriched silty matrix. Neither mound produced any evidence of a trough or a hearth, nor was there any cooking or occupational debris. The absence of diagnostic material suggests that these mounds may have functioned as saunas or sweathouses. Finds retrieved from around the sites include five glass beads, one flint fragment and a fractured hammer or rubbing stone.