County: Galway Site name: Kilkerrin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0565
Author: Declan Moore, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd. (Moore Group), Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Ballybrit, Galway.
Site type: Monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 484281m, N 731679m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.322709, -9.736971
Monitoring was carried out at various townlands in the vicinity of Kilkerrin, Co. Galway. The scheme involves the installation of a new sewerage system servicing the town, an access road to the sewerage works and an outfall pipe to a stream that flows into a small seasonal lake or turlough to the east of Kilkerrin. The development is close to GA031–051 (a ringfort), GA031–052 (an earthwork), GA031–042 and GA031–043 (both ringforts).
Monitoring at the location of the proposed access road and treatment plant was carried out in July and monitoring of the proposed outfall pipe was carried out in September 2008. Topsoil-stripping was carried out using a 20-tonne excavator with a grading bucket supported by two dumpers. Groundworks involved stripping an 8m-wide wayleave for the access road followed by the entire stripping of the treatment site. The trench for the outfall pipe was excavated through three fields until it reached a stream which flows into a turlough. Excavation exposed a 0.3–0.5m depth of sod and topsoil overlaying a mid-greyish-brown silty clay underneath which was a mix of natural orange boulder clay to white sandy glacial till.
A linear feature was exposed during monitoring of the proposed outfall pipe; it proved to be a cultivation furrow running east to west across the trench. No other finds or features of archaeological potential were exposed.
