County: Galway Site name: Dunlo
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0653
Author: Billy Quinn, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd, Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Ballybrit, Galway.
Site type: Testing – possible fulacht fiadh
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 518473m, N 730128m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.323060, -8.226944
An assessment in advance of a planning application was carried out at Dunlo townland in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, in 2008. The project involves a proposed retail and commercial development on 6.8ha. The development is close to a number of monuments including a post-medieval canal (GA088–010) and the site of an enclosure (GA088–028). A field inspection identified a previously unrecorded feature of archaeological potential to the north-west of the site. The feature was a subcircular mound measuring 15m in diameter in a low-lying field at the base of a ridge. On the advice of the consultant the area was subsequently geophysically investigated. The results of this survey identified a number of specific anomalies; however, in the vicinity of the mound the findings were inconclusive. Following consultations with DoEHLG, a programme of testing was recommended. This took place over a period of three days in August 2008.
Testing in the vicinity of the mound exposed fire-cracked stone in a compact charcoal-enriched silty sand. Given the nature of the material and its situation near the break of a slope in boggy terrain, it probably represents a fulacht fiadh. Elsewhere throughout the site the other geophysical anomalies were tested and found to be either drains or dumps of modern debris.
