County: Galway Site name: FARRANABLAKE EAST (Site 2.6)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA096-089 Licence number: A024/4
Author: Tom Janes, Headland Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Ringfort - cashel
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 550241m, N 725942m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.281469, -8.746146
Testing in Farranablake East confirmed the presence of a stone-walled ringfort, or cashel. Initial investigations suggest two or possibly three phases of construction, with different dry-wall construction techniques observed. The eastern section of the wall is built with rectangular, faced, cut limestone blocks uniformly placed together. The bottom course of this wall is within a shallow foundation cut. The western portion of the wall uses larger, irregularly shaped stone fitted less uniformly together and lies on a built-up embankment with no foundation cut observed. A central, curvilinear feature within the cashel appears to be the dividing point of these two techniques and may be part of an earlier structure that was expanded to the east at a later date.
The eastern portion of the wall has been used as a field boundary and appears to have had significant reconstruction to the upper courses.
The work was commissioned by Galway County Council National Roads Design Office and sponsored by the National Roads Authority.
Unit 1, IDA Industrial Estate, Wallingstown, Little Island, Co. Cork
