2008:887 - Carha and Bofield, Mayo

At the request of Ryan Hanley and Associates (acting on behalf of Mayo County Council), CRDS Ltd were commissioned to act as consulting archaeologists to the Carha and Bofield group water schemes situated outside Ballina in Co. Mayo. This consists of 47km of linear water pipes in and around the two locations of Carha and Bofield. A total of 15,265m of pipe will be laid in Carha and 31,596m will be laid in Bofield. In general all these works will be along roads/road verges, except where short crossings are made across greenfield areas to facilitate river crossings. In total fifteen river crossings will be made in Carha and thirteen will be made in Bofield. The works are scheduled to be completed in 72 weeks from September 2008.
In Carha the pipeline will run within 6m of MA031–047, a ringfort in the townland of Rathreedaun. In Bofield the pipeline will run within 1m of MA040–025, an enclosure site in the townland of Carrowconeen. The client decided to ‘directional drill’ the route, rather than open trenching. This consisted of drilling beneath the road surface at a depth of 1–1.2m. Pits were dug c. every 100m to facilitate the drilling rig. It was decided in consultation with the National Monuments Service that the stratigraphy in these pits required intermittent monitoring.
CRDS Ltd started works on 12 September 2008, at which point a large portion of the works in Bofield had been completed in advance of the appointment of an archaeological consultant. During intermittent monitoring on 11 December 2008 in the townland of Behy Beg, four archaeological features were exposed. These consisted of three small pits and a possible slot-trench. These were located 8.5m from the outer bank of a possible barrow site, MA031–052. This monument had been identified in the original impact assessment by Martin Byrne and Associates as constraint AR20; however, this had recorded the monument as 70m from the pipeline and had recommended no specific archaeological works. The outer bank of the monument was in fact only 8.5m from the pipeline route.
The features were recorded in a trench excavated to connect two water pipes. This measured 0.75m by 7m by 0.95m. All features were recorded and burnt material from one of the pits was liberally sampled. Wood ID, in advance of radiocarbon dating, has confirmed the charcoal to be hazel. The results of the carbon date are still awaited.
The position of the monument relative to the route raised concerns for CRDS Ltd about the validity of the impact assessment for the remainder of the works. On 27 January 2009 CRDS Ltd ceased to act as archaeological consultants to Mayo County Council. The licence was transferred to Angela Wallace of Connaught Archaeological Services. At that time approximately two-thirds of the Bofield works had been completed and the works in Carha were yet to commence.
Reference
Mullins, C. 2008 Carha and Bofield group water schemes, Ballina Co. Mayo. Archaeological impact assessment report. Unpublished technical report.