County: Roscommon Site name: Mihanboy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002829
Author: Liam Ó Séaghdha, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Walled enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 598415m, N 739627m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.406785, -8.023833
The site was excavated as part of the N6 Ballinasloe to Athlone national road scheme. Work was commissioned by Galway County Council and funded by the National Roads Authority. Excavations at the site were carried out in January 2007. Post-excavation work is ongoing and any interpretations are preliminary.
Six hand-excavated trenches, with a total area of 33.2m2, were excavated to investigate a walled oval enclosure surrounding a ridge-and-furrow system with outlying annexe walls on a low hill. The site was located in undulating drumlin landscape under pasture. No archaeological artefacts or features were discovered during excavations.
Trench 1 was located on the summit of the hill and measured 2.4m east–west by 1m and 0.15m in depth and was inserted to investigate the visible ridge-and-furrow features. The parallel ridges, 1.8m apart, 1.32m in width and running in a general north–south direction, ran the length of the site. Trench 2 was located near the brow of the hill and measured 5m north–south by 1m and 0.32m in depth. This contained a similar ridge-and-furrow system to that noted in Trench 1. Trench 3 was located at the annexe wall, west of the main enclosing wall, and measured 2m by 2m and 0.27m in depth. Excavations revealed the base of the annexe wall. No foundation trench was noted. The wall measured 1.1m in height and 0.95m in width and was of randomly coursed large boulders and rubble. Trench 4 abutted the interior of the main enclosure wall and measured 2m north-west/south-east by 2m and 0.46m in depth. The adjacent wall was of drystone construction, with a rubble core and larger stones forming the lower courses. A lynchet, formed by the natural build-up of material accumulating against the interior of the wall, was noted. Trench 5 was located c. 1.5m south-east of Trench 4 in a location where the main enclosing wall had collapsed. The trench measured 5m north-east/south-west by 2m and 0.23m in depth. Much of the centre of the trench was filled with collapsed rubble from the wall, which was identical to that seen in the nearby Trench 4. Large in situ stones protruding from the subsoil were used as foundation stones in places. Trench 6 was placed close to the summit of the hill and measured 5m east–west by 1m and 0.2m in depth. Ridge-and-furrow cultivation was identical to that noted in Trench 1.
