County: Galway Site name: Banagher
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0288
Author: Melanie McQuade, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin.
Site type: Ditches and pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 539810m, N 762072m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.605033, -8.909459
Test excavation was carried out in order to establish the date of a series of low stone walls, earthwork banks and linear depressions concentric to the hilltop on which the ringfort GA016–006 is located. These features are located between 50m and 250m from the ringfort. Thirteen test-trenches were excavated by a JCB across the concentric earthworks. The results of test excavations, combined with the cartographic evidence, has established that the low bank and wall features at Banagher are mostly post-medieval in date and that they do not mark the line of earlier enclosing features associated with the ringfort or with any substantial archaeological site.
Several small linear ditches and two pits, with no surface expression, were identified in the test-trenches. Three shallow linear ditches, F13, F15 and F16, were revealed 160m to the north-west of the ringfort. These ditches were between 0.6m and 1.6m wide and a maximum of 0.35m deep. Their silty fills indicate that they were probably drainage features. Two similarly sized ditches, F9 and F7, that may represent drainage or cultivation features were identified 280m to the north-east of the ringfort. These ditches were 0.5m and 0.9m wide and 0.12–0.2m deep. A piece of struck flint recovered from the northern ditch, F7, suggests a prehistoric date for this feature. Another shallow linear ditch, F11, was uncovered 240m to the north-east of the ringfort. This ditch was 1m wide and 0.15m deep and cartographic evidence suggests that is a remnant field boundary from the late 19th or early 20th century.
A pit and a ditch were uncovered 170m to the north-east of the ringfort. The pit F3 was 0.65m by 1m by 0.15m and contained burnt clay and charcoal. The ditch F5, probably a redundant field boundary, was located 9.4m to the north-west of the pit and was 1.5m wide and 0.17m deep. A smaller pit, F18, was uncovered 210m to the north-west of the ringfort. The pit was 0.4m in diameter and 0.14m deep. It had a scorched base and a charcoal-rich fill. With the exception of the struck flint from ditch F7, no finds were recovered to indicate the date of the features identified in the test-trenches.
