2010:093 - Cloonlara, Clare

Pre-construction testing was undertaken as part of a planning application to build 64 houses and undertake associated site works at Cloonlara village, Co. Clare. The site is to the west and south-west of the constraint area for a sheela-na-gig (present location). Located on the canal bridge, this sheela-na-gig is in poor condition and not at its original location. It is considered the numbers cut into it probably pertain to the date of construction of the bridge, with both the bridge and canal present on the first-edition OS map.
The extant remains in and around the site, which comprised four pasture fields, pertained to Glebe House, a Palladian structure, and its associated walled gardens, which stands just outside the north-west perimeter of the site and which was built c. 1810. On the first-edition OS map (1842), the garden is shown as being ornamental rather than kitchen, with a number of landscaped features, linear and circular, portrayed on the map. The surrounding fields are predominantly laid out in a rectangular system, which would tend to place their genesis to the later post-medieval period at the earliest.
A total of 33 trenches were opened within four fields that comprised the proposed development site. Five trenches were positioned across a slight ridge which was visible extending through the southern extent of the site, whilst three more were located to determine the provenance of some potential low oval mounds. Nothing of archaeological provenance was revealed in any of the trenches; the ridge proved to be a ploughed-out field boundary, whilst the hummocks were of natural derivation. Some sherds of pottery were retrieved from the trenches, with the earliest dating to the late 19th century. Interestingly, not a single piece of clay pipe was found.