County: Roscommon Site name: LIBERTY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RO054-019 Licence number: 05E1102
Author: Dominic Delany, Dominic Delany & Associates
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 595033m, N 733560m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.352234, -8.074590
Pre-development testing was carried out on the site of a proposed new dwelling house on 7 October 2006. The north-east part of the site lies within the area of archaeological constraint around Liberty Castle. The castle is almost destroyed, but the extant remains suggest it was a small rectangular structure (8.6m by 6.5m) built of undressed irregular limestone blocks and rounded boulders.
A tracked excavator fitted with a wide grading bucket was retained to open four trenches on the proposed development site, which lies across the road to the south-west of the castle. The topsoil averaged 0.25m in thickness and overlay the subsoil, which varied from reddish-brown clayey sand to yellow/grey fine sand and contained frequent stone throughout. It was noted during testing that the ground was quite loose and stony and there were several large pockets of topsoil lodged in irregular depressions on the surface of the subsoil. These were interpreted as stone sockets resulting from previous field clearance works. The presence of numerous large boulders along the north-west boundary of the site supports this interpretation.
Unit 3, Howley Court, Oranmore, Co. Galway
