County: Galway Site name: MACKNEY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A024/4.13
Author: John Tierney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 583089m, N 729236m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.313128, -8.253765
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).
A site of archaeological potential adjacent to ‘O’Kelly’s Castle’, a former tower-house, is located across the road which abuts the west side of Field 127 (see No. 627, Excavations 2005, A024/4.12). After testing, this field was found to be devoid of any material of archaeological importance. The site of O’Kelly’s Castle (SMR 97:179) is located in Field 124 (outside the CPO) on the other side of the road along the western field boundary of Field 127.
The aim of testing was to locate the anomalies identified in the geophysical survey (ArchaeoPhysica 2004) and to establish their nature, extent and significance. In the survey faint linear anomalies were detected in Field 127. The northern one of these may be the modern ditch uncovered in Trench 5 during testing. The northern of two ‘bases of stony banks’ detected in Field 128 is likely to be a modern drain uncovered in Trenches 1 and 3 during testing. The ‘cluster of responses’ did not yield any results during testing in Field 126. Similarly, the southern linear features in Fields 127 and 128 and the possible buried steel in Field 128 were not identified during testing.
The linear features uncovered comprise ditches and drains which were not recorded on the first-edition OS map. These are agricultural in origin and are not of archaeological significance. No features or artefacts of archaeological significance were uncovered in any of the trenches excavated.
Reference
ArchaeoPhysica 2004 N6 Galway to East Ballinasloe geophysical survey report. Unpublished report lodged with the DoEHLG.
Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork
