County: Galway Site name: CARAUN MORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A024/3.24
Author: Aisling Collins, CRDS LTD.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 564336m, N 725374m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.277491, -8.534735
Assessment on the proposed route of the N6 Galway–Ballinasloe road scheme (Contract 3) involved targeted test excavation of selected areas. The work was commissioned by Galway County Council National Roads Design Office and sponsored by the National Roads Authority.
A burnt mound was discovered here during Phase 1 testing. It is near another burnt mound, A034/3.3 (Burnt mound I – No. 569, Excavations 2005). Geophysical survey of this location had not identified this site. A ringfort (SMR 97:56) lies 135m to the south-west and is unaffected by works. The site lies within low-lying pasture subject to flooding and had been heavily truncated by furrows and a modern field drain bordering its western edge. About 0.3m of topsoil covered the site.
The burnt mound was characterised by charcoal-rich silt and heat-shattered stone. It extended over an area 7.5m by 5m (38m2) and up to 0.22m in depth. There were no finds retrieved nor were other features of archaeological significance identified, though these, if present, may lie beneath the mound.
It was recommended that this site be subject to full excavation. This took place in 2006 under ministerial direction A024/20.
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14
