2011:246 - BALLYBOY, Galway

Trial trenching was carried out on the site of a proposed single house development in Ballyboy townland, Gort, Co. Galway. The area is located adjacent to the site of a univallate enclosure that was destroyed during land reclamation in the 1980s. Marked on the OS maps as ‘Rose Hill’, a portion of the hill to the east was embanked as part of the construction of the Gort to Crusheen (N18) motorway. The archaeological work at the proposed house site took place in two phases, on 26 September and on 14 November 2011. In the course of the first phase of testing, four U-shaped depressions, all aligned north–south and of similar dimensions (2.5m in length and 0.9m in depth), were discovered in four of the five trial trenches excavated. Apart from two fragments of glass from topsoil and animal bone from the fill, there were no other finds associated with these features. Further investigations were carried out in the second phase of works in November, when a 10m² area to the north of one of the U-shaped cuts (in Trench 5) was examined more closely.
The extension of the trench to the north of the U-shaped feature in Trench 5 exposed a 6.5m area of the feature, showing it to curve slightly to the north-east. It was not possible to classify this feature definitely, as the simple form of the U-shaped cut and the homogeneous fill were consistent throughout and no associated artefacts were discovered. It is possible that the line of the cut curves to form an enclosing element. There was no indication that the feature was associated with the nearby now-destroyed enclosure.

80 Portacarron, Ballymoneen Road, Galway