2010:355 - Letterbrickaun, Galway

Testing was carried out in advance of the construction of five proposed houses at Letterbrickaun, Leenane. Initially an assessment was undertaken followed by a geophysical survey. There were no known monuments on the field or in the immediate vicinity, save for a holy well (GA012–003) at the extreme south-west sector. Some anomalies showed up from the geophysics and these areas were tested manually. To this end, twelve trenches were excavated but no feature of archaeological significance turned up. Instead, a series of cultivation furrows (and some narrower drills) became apparent cut into the boulder clay. The furrows averaged 0.3m deep and 0.4–0.7m wide, while pottery from the fill of two furrows dates to the earlier half of the 20th century. The ridge and furrow system appears to have had two general alignments, east-north-east/west-south-west and north-north-east/south-south-west, while the wider deeper furrows probably hinted at archaeology from the geophysics. At intervals throughout the overall site an additional 21 trenches were cut by toothless machine bucket. In the east half, these trenches were almost exclusively cut through peaty ground on top of orange or pale daub. In the west half, the topsoil clay overlay grey gravel where further cultivation furrows turned up.