2005:649 - RATHGLASS, Galway

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Galway Site name: RATHGLASS

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A024/3.11

Author: Marta Muñiz Pérez, for CRDS Ltd.

Site type: No archaeology found

Period/Dating: N/A

ITM: E 567549m, N 726108m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.284301, -8.486632

This excavation was undertaken as part of testing for the proposed N6 Galway–Ballinasloe road scheme, Contract 3, commissioned by the Galway County Council National Roads Design Office and sponsored by the National Roads Authority. Work consisted of the excavation of test-trenches with mechanical diggers over a distance of c. 15km. Testing excavation A024/3.11 was carried out on 7 November 2005.

The site was situated on the north-east slope of a low hill overlooking a river valley on each side, north and south. The site commands good views of the surrounding landscape and there is bog within 250m of the site in almost every direction. An earthwork enclosure (SMR 86:214, possibly a moated site) is located 380m west of the site; it will not be impacted on by the proposed road. Due to proximity to this monument, the site was the object of a geophysical survey (licence 03R147). This indicated magnetic anomalies in the subsoil which were interpreted as a large curvilinear ditch oriented north-west/south-east.

A central trench was excavated along the longitudinal axis of the road-take. Eleven additional trenches were excavated following a pattern designed to test the geophysical anomalies. A total of 1000m2 were tested. No traces of this feature or any other archaeological feature were encountered during test-trenching.

Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14