2011:267 - KILLALOONTY, Galway

Pre-development testing was carried out over four days between 8 and 13 September 2011 at a site at Killaloonty townland, Tuam. The proposed development consisted of the expansion of an existing manufacturing facility located adjacent to the site.
The site consisted of a greenfield area to the north-east, a backfilled area in the centre and an area of scrub to the south-west. A geophysical survey carried out on the greenfield area to the north-east identified a number of anomalies, which appeared to be associated with a small rectangular structure marked on the 1932 edition of the OS 6in. sheet. The structure was not marked on the 1st edition, surveyed in 1838, but was marked on the 25in. sheet dating from the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. The remaining areas were not suitable for geophysical survey and therefore required testing owing to the scale of the proposed development. There were no archaeological features visible and no recorded monuments located within the proposed development site.
The testing consisted of the excavation of fifteen trenches by machine. The three trenches excavated in the greenfield area of the site, to investigate anomalies brought to light during the geophysical survey, were 30.7m, 18.6m and 9.5m long respectively, 1.2–1.5m wide and 0.15–0.7m deep. The eight trenches excavated in the centrally located filled area were 34.7m, 49m, 90m, 25m, 70m, 39.1m, 27.8m and 26m long respectively, 1.2–3m wide and 0.6–2.75m deep. One trench was excavated in a greenfield area within the filled area and measured 49.2m long, 1.2–2.1m wide and 0.1–0.9m deep. The three trenches excavated in the area of scrub were 33.5m, 18.5m and 20m long respectively, 1.5–2.5m wide and 1.4–2.4m deep.
Testing revealed evidence of modern/recent fill above natural undisturbed stratigraphy in the form of peat above natural subsoil in the eight trenches excavated within the centrally located filled area. It revealed natural undisturbed stratigraphy in the form of peat above natural subsoil in the three trenches excavated within the area of scrub. It also revealed natural undisturbed stratigraphy, in the form of peaty topsoil/topsoil above natural subsoil, in one of the three trenches excavated within the greenfield area and in the trench excavated in the greenfield area within the filled area.
The remains of a building and two associated linear features were uncovered in the two remaining trenches excavated in the greenfield area. The evidence appeared to suggest that the building was a domestic dwelling rather than an outhouse, with the cartographic evidence supporting a date in the second half of the 19th century or the early 20th century. The linear features were the remains of an earth and stone bank, shown on both the 1838 and 1932 editions of the OS 6in. sheet.
Only modern artefacts were recovered from the testing. Nothing of archaeological significance was revealed.

4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo