County: Mayo Site name: CHAPEL STREET, SWINFORD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: MA062-075 Licence number: 09E0226 ext.
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 537462m, N 799519m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.941222, -8.952513
Monitoring of groundworks was carried out on 3 March 2011 at a development adjacent to Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Chapel Street, Swinford. The development consisted of the retention and completion of a pitched roof storage building and associated groundworks. The monitoring was a condition of the planning permission granted by Mayo County Council. The writer had carried out pre-development testing at the site in May 2009 (Excavations 2009, no. 598, 09E0226) as part of a Request for Further Information on a previous planning application for a proposed car park. The location was the site of an enclosure (MA062-075), of which no surface trace remained. Testing revealed evidence of two sections of the enclosing element of the monument and the development was postponed.
The writer had compiled an impact assessment report in September 2010 in response to a Further Information Request on the new planning application for the retention and completion of the pitched roof building (which measured 7.3m long and 5.5m wide) and associated groundworks. Although the building was partially constructed, fortunately it was located c. 25m outside the line of the monument and the groundworks did not appear to have had any adverse effect on the archaeology. The report recommended monitoring of any further groundworks.
The development site was located in the south-eastern corner of a small field of pasture, which sloped from the north, centre and east down to the west and south. Immediately north of the field was a nuns’ burial ground associated with the nearby Convent of Mercy. Our Lady Help of Christians Church was located immediately east of the proposed development site.
The groundworks monitored were those involved in the construction of a footpath and the installation of an electrical service between the church and the new building. The groundworks did not exceed the depth of the topsoil. A small number of modern pottery sherds, one animal bone and one modern glass fragment were recovered but not retained. Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered.
4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
