County: Mayo Site name: AGHADRINAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0450
Author: Richard F. Gillespie, (Mayo County Council), Westport Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 514726m, N 788077m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.835182, -9.295544
The greenfield area adjacent to the ringfort at Aghadrinagh (MA078–040), which will be impacted on by the proposed N5 Westport Turlough road project, was tested. The test area is located between previously disturbed ground and continues to within 10m of the intact ringfort and covers a 55m by 12m area located on a glacial ridge. This ridge has been extensively disturbed, although the fort, a univallate enclosure with a low circular bank topped with trees, remains substantially intact.
A 2m-wide trench along the edge of the land-take adjacent to the ringfort was opened for a length of 53m to a maximum depth of 2.2m below the modern surface. Extensive disturbance to the upper strata was identified to the south, with modern finds (a plastic bag) at the base of the topsoil. The northern half of the trench was previously undisturbed. Four 2m-wide evenly spaced trenches were excavated perpendicular to the first trench to the south-east, measuring 8–10m long, and their stratigraphy was consistent with it. All trenches were excavated stratigraphically to previously undisturbed subsoil. Despite the close proximity to an intact ringfort nothing of archaeological interest was uncovered by this testing.
