County: Galway Site name: Urraghry
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: E002449
Author: John Tierney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 580379m, N 728517m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.306575, -8.294393
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. 180m2 was machine cleared down to the archaeological sediments. The area thus cleared was then hand cleaned to define further the archaeological component of the site. This consisted of a centrally located concentration of burnt material, a palaeochannel running north-east to south-west across the site, a sub-rounded trough (revealed when the burnt material was removed), a fragment of a gully in the north-western corner of the site and fifteen stake-holes within the palaeochannel, the trough and the gully. The area of excavation was extended in the north-east corner by a further 2m to ensure the alignment of the channel and its relation, if any, to the gully and to determine whether or not the stake-holes within the channel continued outside the area of excavation. The artefact assemblage consisted of a flint thumb scraper, a flint core and flint debitage. The artefacts were recovered from the south-eastern end of the palaeochannel.
The site is located at the eastern edge of low-lying reclaimed peatland, adjacent to a deep channel whose antiquity may be indicated by the presence of the burnt mound.
The presence of the stake-holes within the palaeochannel suggests some form of water management associated with the trough, possibly a sluice gate to control the flow of water into the work area.
