County: Galway Site name: BALLYBOY (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A044; E3719
Author: Siobhán McNamara, IAC Ltd.
Site type: Barrow - ring-barrow
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 543087m, N 698011m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.029747, -8.848441
This ring-barrow, discovered just below the ridge crest of an east-facing valley slope at 27m OD, was excavated during October–November 2007. The site was discovered during test excavations on the route of the N18 Gort to Crusheen road scheme.
The ring-barrow measured 28.5m in continuous circumference in length. It had a maximum depth of 0.46m and a maximum width of 1.65m. The cut had sides that sloped gradually inwards towards a rounded base. It was backfilled to its full depth with one fill, a silty clay with sporadic charcoal and cremated bone. One cremation was cut into this fill at the centre of the western side of the ring-barrow. This cremation measured 0.29m north–south by a width of 0.27m and a depth of 0.14m. It contained six small shiny stone pebbles and cremated bone. Afterwards a shallow cut of a maximum depth of 0.2m was dug into the circumference of this main fill. This cut was the same length as the main barrow cut and had widths that varied from 0.5m to 0.86m. It was similar in cross-section to the main cut of the barrow, as it also had gently sloping sides and a curved base. This cut was filled with black silty clay that was extremely rich in cremated bone and charcoal. Two pieces of corroded iron were found in the top of this fill. As they were so close to the top of this fill, there was a possibility that these may have been intrusive.
There was one small cremation pit positioned in the north-west of the interior of the ring-barrow. It measured 0.34m (north-north-west by south-south-east) by 0.3m in width and had a depth of 0.27m. The main fill was silty clay and this contained a large proportion of cremated bone, relative to the volume of the fill. The northern area also contained a small post-hole that measured 0.28m by 0.26m and had a depth of 0.2m. The fill was sandy silt with occasional charcoal.
A subrectangular structure cut into the top of the barrow on its southern side. The south of this structure was constructed of two L-shaped trenches with well-defined cuts with V-shaped cross-sections. Both were filled with sandy silt. The remains of three other possible slot-trenches formed the north of this feature; the most northerly two cut into the south of the ring-barrow. These three trenches were cut by a phase of wide east–west agricultural furrows, which contributed to their fragmentary nature. One trench positioned in the west was also filled with sandy silt like the southern ones. The remaining two trenches were severely truncated and what remained of their fills appeared to have a higher organic content, although this could have occurred because the slot-trenches cut through the ring-barrow fills. These slot-trenches enclosed an area of 6m north–south by 4.8m.
Surface finds included clay-pipe fragments, iron nodules, a modern copper-alloy piece and four struck chert flakes.
After processing the soil samples taken from Ballyboy 1, seven glass beads were recovered. (This may increase, as individual cremations have not been processed yet.) Surface finds included clay-pipe fragments and four struck chert flakes.
120B Greenpark Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
