County: Roscommon Site name: Golf Links Road, Roscommon
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: 06E0378
Author: Cia McConway, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 587453m, N 763520m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.621355, -8.189642
Test-trenching was undertaken on 8 and 9 May 2006 in advance of a proposed office development on Golf Links Road, Roscommon. The proposed development site is in the townland of Slevinagee, about 220m south-east of Roscommon Abbey. There are no known archaeological sites recorded within the proposed development site. Given that the site is situated in agricultural lands that potentially once belonged to the medieval Dominican abbey, a programme of testing was recommended by the heritage authorities.
Twelve linear test-trenches of varying lengths were excavated to an average depth of 0.7m through boggy rough pasture using a tracked machine with a grading bucket. The soils uncovered were found to be largely uniform throughout the site. The exposed trench sections generally revealed a dark-brown topsoil above a black peat deposit which in turn overlay a cream/light-grey marl subsoil. Throughout much of the site a thin layer of gravel containing plastic and glass fragments was noted between the topsoil and black peat layers. This gravel deposit is probably the result of a recent flooding event. The cream/light-grey marl subsoil was tested periodically in order to check its noticeable uniformity and sterile archaeological nature.
No archaeological features, artefacts or deposits were identified in any of the twelve trenches during the testing programme.
