2006:806 - GORT: Kinincha Road, Galway

Pre-development testing and monitoring of groundworks was carried out at a site at Kinincha Road, Gort, Co. Galway, on 9 and 10 March 2006 (monitoring) and between 25 April and 10 May 2006 (pre-development testing). The proposed development, the construction of two light industrial buildings, associated car parking and external works, was located within the constraint for a church.

The site had been extensively filled with rubble in recent years. An impact assessment of the site concluded that there were no extant remains of the monument. Subsequent testing in September and October 2005 (Excavations 2005, No. 609) had revealed very disturbed human remains in the north-western half of the site, possibly the remains of a burial-ground, while nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered in the south-eastern half of the site. Based on the results of the testing, the Heritage and Planning Division, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, recommended that the area containing the burials be preserved in situ by raising the levels of the proposed development and that all groundworks be monitored.

A total of 34 pits were excavated for foundation pads for the building located in the south-eastern half of the site. The pits measured 2.3–3.6m by 2–5m by 0.5–2.5m deep. The stratigraphy uncovered was rubble fill above topsoil, blue/grey sterile loose sand and gravel, bedrock and blue/grey compact/plastic boulder clay. The rubble fill measured 0.15–1.5m thick and contained timber, steel bars, modern tiles, aluminium cans, aeroboard, tarmac, hardcore and plastic. A number of human bones were uncovered during the excavation of a pad located at the south-western side of the north-western end of the building.

As a result of the discovery of human bone, further testing was recommended by the Department. This testing consisted of the pad in the building in the south-eastern half of the site and six pads in the building in the north-western half of the site. Further investigation of the pad in the building in the south-eastern half of the site, which measured 2.2m by 2m by 0.1–0.7m deep, revealed a small amount of displaced human bone in the spoil that had resulted from the groundworks, but no burial was uncovered within the pad itself, which contained rubble fill with modern artefacts above grey boulder clay and a grey/brown plastic/compact clay.

The six pads in the north-western half of the site measured 2.2–4m by 1.9–2.7m by 0.1–1.7m deep. The stratigraphy here was dark-brown friable silt loam and loose rubble fill on the surface, above grey/brown loose sand and gravel. The rubble fill was also found above the silt loam. The fill contained modern (20th-century) artefacts and disarticulated human and animal bone. The silt loam contained disarticulated human and animal bone.

The thirteen possible burials uncovered were in poor condition, the result of previous disturbance of the site in the recent past. None of the skeletons were complete and the condition of the individual bones was very fragmentary. Further excavation, which may have revealed more of the skeletons, was not carried out as it would have resulted in disturbance and/or damage to the bone which had already been uncovered. There was no evidence to indicate the cause of death of any of these individuals.

The thirteen possible burials uncovered during this phase of testing, along with the nine burials uncovered in the same area during the previous phase of testing, were evidence of a burial-ground located in the north-western half of the development site. Evidence of a burial-ground at this location was not surprising, given that the development site was located within the constraint for a church, even though there was no surface evidence of the monument. The poor condition of the burials and the individual bones is attributable to the large-scale disturbance of the site in the recent past; i.e. the modern (late 20th-century) fill which was located directly on top of the archaeology.

4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo