County: Galway Site name: Barnacragh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: E002446
Author: John Tierney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 581124m, N 728535m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.306763, -8.283204
This was one of several excavations undertaken for Galway County Council and the National Roads Authority which form part of a wider excavation programme undertaken within c. 15 km of the proposed N6 Galway to Ballinasloe dual carriageway scheme (Contract 4).
An area of c. 255m2 was stripped of topsoil to the top of the archaeological sediments, then hand cleaned. The site consists of a centrally located concentration of heat-shattered stone, a shallow circular pit to the north-west of this material, a rounded trough with a lower linear extension and 69 stake-holes (12 within the trough and 57 under the burnt material to the north-west of the trough). The artefact assemblage consisted of a flint blade and a chert scraper.
Situated at the interface of low-lying but undulating pastoral plains and higher ground to the east, the excavated area was still prone to flooding despite adjacent modern drainage features. The site was situated to the immediate west of a palaeochannel and 35m to the north of an esker ridge. There was evidence of either a drying-rack/wind-break to the north-west of the trough (the 57 stake-holes running off from the trough in a curvilinear alignment that respected the contour line) and water management within the trough (the 12 stake-holes within the trough were located at the interface between the trough proper and its linear extension). The remaining stake-holes formed an arc along the eastern edge of the site.
