County: Mayo Site name: Cashelduff
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: A020/018, E3341
Author: Agnes Kerrigan, for Mayo County Council, Drummin, Westport, Co. Mayo.
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 553666m, N 800328m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.950200, -8.705859
Excavation took place on this site on 2 May 2006. It was newly identified during centreline testing (A020/003) and was fully excavated in advance of the construction of the N5 Charlestown bypass. The site was located on the northern bank of a stream that flowed east–west. The topography was one of high dry ground to the south, gradually sloping to the north into a peat basin. The site was one of two burnt spreads (the other being A020/019, see No. 1415 below) and one fulacht fiadh (A020/020, see No. 1416 below). It lay c. 3.5m east of A020/019 at an altitude of 112m OD. The entire area had been utilised as a coniferous plantation. The site was sealed by a thin layer of peaty clay, 0.1m thick.
The site consisted of a small area of burnt stone in a black silty clay matrix, probable upcast from the excavation/cleaning of the stream. It measured 1.52m east–west by 1m by 0.24m thick. The deposit was only visible in the section adjacent to the southern CPO line, which follows the line of the existing stream. The stream, running east–west, cuts it and A020/019 and A020/020 and may have truncated a site south of the CPO line, resulting in the upcast forming this site.
