2006:1463 - Cloonkedagh Road, Kiltimagh, Mayo

Pre-development testing was carried out on 20 and 21 July 2006 on two adjacent sites at Cloonkedagh Road, Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo. The sites were located in a field of pasture and within the archaeological constraint for a ringfort, of which no surface trace survived. The landowner said that the monument was levelled by bulldozer in the late 1980s. The town sewer ran along the south-western side of the field at 4–5m below the surface. A 50mm-diameter water main ran along the north-east site boundary. Both services were inserted approximately ten years ago. Further disturbance of the site was visible along the north-east half of the south-east site boundary, where an area measuring 26m north-east/south-west by 4.5–5.3m wide had been reduced in level by 0.5–0.8m.
The testing consisted of the excavation (by machine) of four trenches, which measured 27.6m, 25.8m, 25.6m and 26.1m long respectively, 0.9–1.6m wide and 0.15–2m deep. Below the topsoil was fill and orange/brown friable sandy loam. The fill was found over the 50mm-diameter water main. The topsoil and fill contained modern artefacts.
Nothing of archaeological significance was revealed in three of the trenches, but, visible within the north-western section face of the final trench (excavated in the south-eastern half of the south-eastern site), at 0.1m below the surface, was what appeared to be the remains of a collapsed souterrain. The feature consisted of five courses of rubble (7–8 blocks in total), which were orientated east–west and measured 1m in height. At the top of the five courses was a flat (cap)stone, measuring 0.26m wide and 0.1m thick.
The feature appeared to be the only surviving evidence of the ringfort. This was not surprising given the earlier levelling of the field, the town sewer and a water main having been laid through either end of the field in the 1990s, and the excavation of a sizeable area along the south-east boundary.