County: Mayo Site name: Bellanasally, Achill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: MA042–045 Licence number: 08E0191
Author: Dominic Delany, Dominic Delany & Associates, Unit 3, Howley Court, Oranmore, Co. Galway.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 466390m, N 806968m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.994666, -10.037728
Testing took place on the site of a proposed dwelling house at Bellanasally, Achill, on 18 March 2008. MA042–045 lies to the rear of the site in an area of unimproved land. This monument is recorded as an enclosure but there is no trace of it above ground.
Three trenches were opened on the footprint of the development using a tracked excavator fitted with a grading bucket. There were no features or finds of an archaeological nature in the trenches. The current soil cover is a type of wet peaty soil which, despite the obvious and well-established drainage and improvement, retains wetland characteristics. Removal of blanket bog in these areas has of course often revealed earlier field systems with evidence including remains of walls and ditches. However, nothing of that kind was uncovered in this field.
