County: Mayo Site name: CLARE ISLAND: Kinnawoneen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: MA085-023001 Licence number: 04E0346
Author: John O’Connor, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 468588m, N 785728m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.804477, -9.995108
Monitoring of the excavation of the seabed in preparation for the construction of a new pier on Clare Island, Co. Mayo, was carried out in August 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1142) and again from May to June 2005. The pier was constructed within the zone of archaeological potential for a tower-house said to have been built by the pirate queen Granuaile, and the possible site of an earlier promontory fort.
The excavation works were carried out by a long-reach mechanical excavator using a toothed bucket. A haul road c. 6m wide, constructed from core rock, was built from the landward end of the works towards the pier. While sitting on the haul road, the long-reach excavator excavated the toe to the required depth (1.6m below existing bed level) and cast the material towards the structure for later incorporation into the permanent works. The later stages of the excavation were carried out from a barge. The area excavated for the toe measured between 11m and 12m wide by c. 120m long.
An overhanging part of the headland upon which the castle was built, c. 5m wide by c. 2m deep, was also removed. The thin layer of topsoil was removed first to reveal bedrock, which was then removed by the mechanical excavator with a toothed bucket. Nothing of archaeological significance was found in the course of the project.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3
