County: Mayo Site name: BALLYSAKEERY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0736
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 524467m, N 827107m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.187341, -9.157267
The proposed development at Ballysakeery, Killala, the refurbishment of an existing two-storey house and outbuilding attached to its northern gable, was close to Ballysakeery Castle and Ballysakeery church and graveyard. The development will also involve the insertion of a percolation area with a pipeline leading from the house and a biocycle treatment unit for effluent.
Six test-trenches examined the impacts of these proposed works. The results uncovered evidence for an old A horizon, possibly the remains of cultivation ridges, buried beneath redeposited topsoil which had been excavated from the scarp dug to create a level area for the original house and outbuildings. This in turn was covered by up to 0.75m of soil which contained crushed seashell, slate fragments and mortar, considered to represent construction debris from the house.
The percolation area revealed a small isolated pocket of seashell, possibly a midden deposit, which could suggest that not all of the crushed shell found in the soil around the house was a by-product of construction.
The scarping down to natural subsoil and bedrock associated with the original construction of the buildings had removed all possibility of archaeology surviving in this area.
