County: Galway Site name: LOUGHBOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA087-177 Licence number: A024/4.7
Author: Finn Delaney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 581640m, N 729277m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.313448, -8.275506
The assessment, including test excavation, was carried out before the construction of the proposed N6 Galway–Ballinasloe road scheme. The proposed scheme will be a dual carriageway, 56km in length, extending from the east side of Galway city at Doughiska to the east side of Ballinasloe, at Beagh Brabazon, in Co. Roscommon. The assessment was undertaken for Galway County Council and the National Roads Authority and forms part of a wider archaeological assessment of c. 15km of the proposed N6 dual carriageway (Contract 4).
The site is situated less than 2km east of Aughrim and 3km west of Ballinasloe. Fields 103–105, 107–110 were subjected to testing. Enclosure A024/4.8 (SMR 87:177), located in Field 110, is the subject of a separate report (see No. 622, Excavations 2005). The aim of testing was to locate the anomalies identified in a geophysical survey (ArchaeoPhysica 2004) and to establish their nature, extent and significance. In the survey the anomalies were interpreted as linear features including ditches, banks and disturbance possibly ‘related to the perimeter of the adjacent enclosure’ (ibid.).
All features identified in the geophysical survey were subjected to testing. The area of the two possible ditch fills indicated in Field 105 in the survey were tested, though the features were not uncovered. Similarly, the possible bank in Field 107, the weak linear anomaly in Field 108 and the ‘possible line of stony bank’ and ditch fills in Field 110 were not uncovered during testing. The interpretation of the feature in Field 110 as disturbance possibly related to the enclosure that lies within area A024/4.8.
A thin burnt spread uncovered in Trench 7 of Field 105, later interpreted to be of no archaeological significance, was not detected in the geophysical survey; this is not surprising as the spread was only 0.05m in depth.
The features identified in the geophysical survey were not identified during centre-line testing. Only one feature was uncovered during excavation of test-trenches. The charcoal-rich deposit uncovered in Trench 7 of Field 105 was deemed to be of no archaeological significance after partial excavation.
Reference
ArchaeoPhysica 2004 N6 Galway to East Ballinasloe geophysical survey report. Unpublished report lodged with the DoEHLG.
Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork
