County: Clare Site name: POULNABRONE: Poulnabrone Dolmen Parking Site
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL009-034001 Licence number: 05E1023
Author: Graham Hull, TVAS (Ireland) Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 523667m, N 700184m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.046861, -9.138426
Clare County Council has identified an area of reclaimed grassland that is less than 150m south of Poulnabrone portal tomb as a potential location for a parking site. At present, visitors to the monument are obliged to stop their motor vehicles on the narrow R480 road.
Nine hand-dug trial-trenches were excavated in the field. The trenches were targeted on anomalies identified by an earlier programme of geophysical prospection (05R048). No archaeological features or deposits were found in the testing and it is certain that the geophysical anomalies are natural in origin.
The observed geology in the test-trenches was water-deposited clay overlying strongly karstified limestone. The erosional surface was characterised predominantly by solution features (hollows). The solid geology is a member of the Slievenaglashna formation from the Brigantian (Carboniferous) period.
Seven pieces of low-quality struck lithics were recovered from the topsoil. Two of the objects were of flint, the others were of chert.
Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare
