County: Galway Site name: Castleturvin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0386
Author: Billy Quinn, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd, Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Ballybrit, Galway.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 548295m, N 724916m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.272055, -8.775156
Testing was carried out at Castleturvin, Athenry, Co. Galway, in May 2008. The proposed development involved the erection of an agricultural shed and concrete apron to the south of an existing complex of farm buildings. The development was in the immediate vicinity of GA096–051, ecclesiastical remains consisting of a church and graveyard. The graveyard is known locally as Templekilmona or Willmount cemetery and consists of the ruins of an Early Christian church on a rocky outcrop enclosed by a roughly subcircular masonry wall. The subject field was located to the west of the church separated by an access road. There was a marked change in levels between both sites.
The footprint for the proposed development consisted of heavily rutted rough pasture. The site had previously contained some now-demolished sheds and also had been used to store rubble fill along its southern range.
Testing involved the excavation of four trenches using a JCB with a grading bucket; all the trenches measured c. 45m long by 1m wide by 1m deep. The stratigraphy exposed consisted of sod and topsoil c. 0.3m in depth overlying a mid-brown silty clay with few inclusions 0.2m deep. This overlay boulder clay. No finds were retrieved from any of the trenches nor were there any other features or materials evident. The only artificial feature encountered was a French drain backfilled with angular cobble-sized stones running south-west/north-east through Trenches 1 and 2. It would appear that the extent of the monument and associated graveyard were contained within the natural elevation to the east of the subject area.
