2010:357 - Lydacan/Ballyaneen/Peterswell/ Castledaly/Kiltiernan/Abbey, Galway

Monitoring was carried out over a period of three months at various locations in south Galway during upgrade works entailing the improvement of water treatment facilities and distribution networks for water supplies to five rural areas. The scope of the work involved monitoring all off-road topsoil removal and maintaining a watching brief of trenching along the road network at certain locations based on recommendations from the National Monuments Service, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The advance works contract was undertaken at five separate locations located for the most part to the north of Gort town. Area 1 was located in and around Lydacan townland c. 2km to the south-west of Labane village on the main road to Galway. Area 2 was situated in and to the east of Ballyaneen townland some 2km north-east of Gort along the secondary road network, to the north and south of the main road (N66) leading to Loughrea. Area 3 centred mostly on the village of Peterswell to the south of the Gort-Loughrea road with a short stretch of pipeline being installed in Castledaly townland on the main N66 routeway. Area 4 was located around the townlands of Kiltiernan and Castletaylor to the north-east of Ardrahan village along the existing secondary road network. The fifth group water scheme was located some distance away in the historic ecclesiastical village of Abbey some 12km to the south-east of Loughrea. Pipeline installation for the advance works contract was carried out predominantly along the rural road network and along the approach roads and street network within the boundaries of Peterswell and Abbey villages. The pipeline went through greenfield sites at just one location, in Ballinduff townland as part of the Lydacan group water scheme (Area 1).
A stone culvert was exposed and partially excavated beyond the graveyard in Abbey village at the junction of the main road and the street leading to Lady’s Well. It was located 0.3m below the modern road surface and extended in an east–west direction along the main road. The culvert remained mostly undisturbed as the pipeline trench was able to flank the feature without disturbing it. The only area where it was disturbed was where the trench left the main road to extend northwards towards Lady’s Well. Limited excavation here indicated that the culvert was of drystone construction utilising a mixture of relatively large flat shale and limestone slabs. At this section it measured 0.35m in width and varied in depth from 0.42m to 0.5m. The two exposed capstones measured 0.81m in length. A layer of fine sandy silt was present on the base of the culvert.