2007:1224 - Carrownlough and Lisduff, Mayo

In 2006 Mayo County Council began road-widening works to straighten a dangerous bend on the Ballindine–Irishtown road at Carrownlough townland, Claremorris, in south Co. Mayo. The council proposes to realign this section of road in order to provide safe access to a council house built beside MA112–045 in the early 1990s. As these road works were under 1km in length, they were not required to be submitted under Part 8 of the planning regulations 2001. As a consequence of this, these works were not the subject of a prior archaeological assessment.
The road at this location cuts through and is 1.5m lower than the enclosure; as a result the field of vision is dangerously obstructed. A Mayo County Council road maintenance crew began removing part of the roadside field boundary resulting in damage being caused to the western bank of the enclosure. Following inspection of the damage to the monument works were immediately halted and a fully licensed excavation of part of the site was undertaken to realign the road.
The site has been damaged on a number of occasions in the past. When the R328 was built pre-1838 the route of the road cut through the monument. More recently a concrete house was built at the site prior to 1961, which removed part of the eastern bank of the enclosure. This house was demolished in the early 1990s and replaced with a new council house immediately east of the enclosure. The chimney stack of the old house was dumped beside a wedge tomb (MA112–044), which lies in the same field c. 30m north-west of the enclosure.
In 2001 during the monitoring of pipe laying associated with the Lough Mask regional water supply scheme Stage III (Excavations 2001, No. 918, 01E0314), two shallow cuts, c. 30m apart, visible in section c. 1m under the Ballindine/Irishtown road, were identified. This feature was recorded and preserved in situ under the road. A radiocarbon date was obtained from the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre (SURRC), dating this feature to 1115650 bp (780–1020 cal ad) (AA-54326, GU-10831). These cuts may relate to the enclosure.
A modern two-storey house was built in 2000 across the road immediately south of the enclosure. Works here were subject to testing conducted by Anne Connolly, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd (Excavations 1999, No. 652, 99E0389).
The current excavation was confined to a strip of land immediately north of the existing field boundary along the edge of the road. Following the removal of the field boundary, hedge and associated undergrowth, which separated the site from the Irishtown road, a linear stone wall was encountered. An area of ground 3m by 40m east–west was desodded, revealing the full extent of this stone wall which ran the full length of the excavated area parallel to the R328. It would appear that this wall was built at the time the road was cut through the enclosure here pre-1838.
Within the relatively narrow area excavated two ditches were revealed. The first ditch was located internal to the bank of the enclosure. This feature was a substantial V-shaped cut 1.9m deep and 3.6m wide. The fill was made up of alternate layers of stone and silt. A second ditch, external to the bank, was identified. It measured 1.9m wide at the top and narrowed at the base to c. 0.8m. It had a maximum depth of 2.05m. The sides were vertical with a flat base that sloped gently to the south.
A notable feature was a shallow subcircular pit 0.85m by 1.65m east–west and measuring 0.25m in depth. The pit contained a layer of charcoal containing burnt timber fragments 0.14m deep. The base of the pit was defined by a layer of heat-reddened clay 0.05m deep.
A range of finds was uncovered including a perforated stone bead and a number of struck lithic pieces including several scrapers. A quantity of animal bone was uncovered together with clay-pipe fragments, modern ceramic sherds, metal fragments and glass. Excavation was completed to the limit of the land acquisition line. Natural boulder clay was then removed to the level of the existing road. The unexcavated section was covered with terram, a block wall was then constructed between the site and the R328 and the area between was backfilled with topsoil.