County: Mayo Site name: ATTICONAUN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 11E0188
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 471573m, N 831461m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.215927, -9.969129
Pre-development testing was carried out over three days between 9 and 13 June 2011 at a site in Atticonaun townland, Belmullet. The proposed development consisted of the construction of 30 two-storey dwelling houses and all associated site development and external works and connection to utilities. Testing was required owing the scale of the development, with no recorded monuments located within or in the immediate vicinity of the site. The proposed development was on the south-eastern outskirts of the town of Belmullet and consisted of two fields and a portion of a third field of pasture. No archaeological features were visible within the site.
Testing consisted of the excavation (by machine) of eleven trenches, positioned to best cover the development area. The trenches measured 99.5m, 99m, 59.9m, 59.4m, 58.9m, 58.7m, 58.5m, 50.5m, 56m, 50m and 58.9m long respectively, 1.8–2m wide and 0.5–1.8m deep. Below the topsoil was peat, above sandy clay and loamy sand (natural subsoil). Modern fill, in the form of builders’ rubble, was in evidence in one of the trenches. A number of land drains crossed some of the trenches. A number of modern artefacts recovered from the testing were not retained.
Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered during testing.
4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
