2005:1102 - MAIN STREET, BALLINROBE, Mayo

Monitoring of groundworks involved in the laying of four 125mm ESB ducts from Main Street, Ballinrobe, through the Church of Ireland graveyard, to a new substation located at the north-west corner of an adjacent development, took place in two phases, 17–19 January and 18–19 April 2005. The church located within the graveyard (now in use as a local library) is marked on the first edition of the OS 6-inch sheet (1838) and it was repaired in 1815 with a grant of £300 from the Board of First Fruits, but the date of its construction is not known. A number of 18th-century grave slabs within the graveyard probably date the church and graveyard to that century.
The trench excavated for the installation of the ducts measured c. 140m long, 0.8–1.2m wide and 0.7–1.0m deep. On the surface of the trench was a mixture of tarmac (in Main Street and along some of its length through the graveyard), concrete (footpath on east side of Main Street) and hardcore (along some of its length within the graveyard). Below the tarmac on Main Street and the concrete footpath along the east side of Main Street was hardcore, which was found above orange/brown plastic clay. A number of services were visible within this section of the trench.
Within the graveyard, tarmac and hardcore were found on the surface. Below the tarmac was hardcore. Below the hardcore was topsoil and fill and orange/brown plastic clay. Below the topsoil and the fill was orange/brown friable silt loam, orange/brown friable sandy clay loam and orange/brown plastic clay. The topsoil contained modern artefacts and a human skull fragment. The fill consisted of stones and rocks and contained modern artefacts, animal bone fragments (cattle, sheep, sheep/goat, pig and bird), occasional charcoal flecks and a moderate amount of oyster shell. A stone culvert and a number of modern services were also revealed.
The groundworks revealed modern activity only; i.e. tarmac, concrete, hardcore, topsoil and rubble fill, which contained modern artefacts. The orange/brown plastic clay, orange/brown friable silt loam and orange/brown friable sandy clay loam were sterile natural subsoils. The culvert is probably 18th- or 19th-century in date. The skull fragment found in the topsoil was probably redeposited from a burial elsewhere in the graveyard.