County: Galway Site name: BALLYBOY (2)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A044; E3718
Author: Siobhán McNamara, IAC Ltd.
Site type: Barrow - ring-barrow
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 542765m, N 697394m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.024169, -8.853146
This ring-barrow, discovered at 26m OD on the lower slope of an east-facing valley ridge in Ballyboy townland in south County Galway, was excavated in November 2007. It was discovered during test excavations on the route of the N18 Gort to Crusheen road scheme.
The ring-barrow measured 19.5m in continuous circumference. The maximum width was 1.27m and the maximum depth was 0.55m.The internal space enclosed by the barrow measured 4.15m east–west by 4.2m. The base of this cut was filled to an average depth of 0.15m with sandy silt.
A large cremation pit that measured 1m east–west by 0.7m by a depth of 0.28m cut into this layer. Due to its large size, its stratigraphically early occurrence within the events within the barrow and its position just to the west of a causeway in the south of the ring-barrow (this survived in the lowest half of the depth of the barrow but was not visible at ground level), this cremation would appear to be highly significant to the purpose of the barrow. It also contained a small fragment of blue glass, possibly belonging to a bead, and a small fragment of copper alloy that appeared to be a worked terminus to a small object. The fill was sandy clay with copious amounts of bone and charcoal.
In the areas where the basal fill was not cut into by this cremation a concave-sectioned channel of a maximum width of 1.1m was dug into the basal fill. This channel was filled by sandy silt that was black in colour from the copious amounts of charcoal. There was also fire-cracked limestone and much cremated bone in the fill. A group of four large pieces of limestone was then placed on top of this dark layer. These, together with a piece of large bedrock limestone, formed an arc of stones in the south of the barrow. One of these stones was placed directly on top of the large cremation. The dark layer, the stones and the cremation were all covered by a sealing layer. This layer was 0.15m-deep sandy silt with occasional charcoal and cremated bone.
Another channel was later scored into the top of this sealing layer. This left the stones in situ. This was then filled with another black sandy silt layer with copious amounts of burnt-bone charcoal and some burnt sandstone and limestone. This fill and channel had a maximum depth of 0.3m. Instead of the black fill filling the channel for the whole circumference, in the centre north for a length of 1.3m the channel was filled with three burning layers that contained some cremated bone; the channel also seemed to be a little oxidised at this point. This area probably represented a separate cremation event.
A small cremation pit was also found in the north-west of the circumference, dug into the top black fill. It had a diameter of 0.25m and a depth of only 0.05m. It contained charcoal and bone. Internally there were four irregular, circular, crudely formed cremation pits. They were 0.08–0.2m in depth and had average diameters of 0.25–0.49m. They had fills of sandy silt with charcoal flecking and cremated bone. They appeared to form a rough east–west line across the barrow just north of the centre.
The surface of the barrow was cut by east–west furrows.
After post-excavation sieving, the total number of finds from the site consisted of 78 beads, nine pieces of copper alloy and ten pieces of unidentified metal. (This may increase, as individual cremations have not yet been processed.)
120B Greenpark Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
