County: Mayo Site name: Ballynew
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0150
Author: Angela Wallace, Connacht Archaeological Services, 19 The Meadows, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo.
Site type: Medieval burials
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 511517m, N 772956m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.698801, -9.339947
The site at Ballynew, Co. Mayo, was excavated as part of an ESB networks programme to lay cables. The route of the cables was located on a narrow winding tertiary road immediately north of the N5, in the townland of Ballynew, located c. 3km north-east of Castlebar. A section of the road where cables were to be laid was considered archaeologically sensitive due to its proximity to MA078–006001 (church and graveyard) and associated MA078–006002 – a ritual site (holy well). Previous development work (Castlebar main drainage scheme, Excavations 2006, No. 1418, 05E1238) in the vicinity of this complex had unearthed human and animal remains; no excavation was carried out at the time as scheme was diverted slightly to the north and the pipe route was bored through bedrock.
During this excavation in May and June of 2010, an area measuring c. 12m in length and 1.85m in width was hand excavated below the surface of the existing road. Six skeletons in varying states of preservation were excavated to the north of the graveyard near the bend of the road. Radiocarbon dates obtained from SK4 returned a date range of cal. ad 1150–1270, and from SK3 the date range fell between cal. ad 1270–1320 (52.6% probability) and ad 1350–1400 (42.8% probability).
