County: Galway Site name: Cregaclare Demesne
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 12E50
Author: Jerry O’Sullivan
Site type: Human skeleton
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 546352m, N 712218m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.157753, -8.802153
Test excavations were undertaken in Cregaclare Demesne townland, by Ardrahan village, on 2.6ha of farmland (grass pasture within dry stone field walls) immediately east of the village. This land has been acquired by St Mary’s GAA Club and will be developed with new sports fields and associated recreational amenities. Ardrahan was the site of an early medieval monastery and, afterwards, a Norman manor with burgh status. The development site lies outside the former burgh but some surface anomalies of possible archaeological origin were observed here, prior to testing, including linear earthworks at the field margins. Machine-cut test trenches, c. 1.5m wide, were opened throughout the site. Several shorter slot trenches were also opened over visible surface anomalies. The total area of testing amounted to c. 1350m2 or about 5% of the area of the development site.
In the north-west part of the site (Area 1) a sandy loam topsoil gave way to a free-draining sand and gravel subsoil, scarred by furrow remnants criss-crossing the site, east-west and north-south. No archaeological features were discovered and there were no finds.
In the south-east part of the site (Area 2), a shallow plough soil again gave way to free-draining sands and gravels, scarred by plough furrows. Two linear features were also observed, traversing this area north-south. One was a shallow ditch filled with fieldstone rubble in a matrix of loose, dark, sandy loam soil. This was interpreted as the base of a field wall. (This was not shown on any edition of the OS map.) A smaller linear cut feature, adjacent to the wall base, resembled a field drain but, in view of the free-draining subsoils in this area, it may have been an earlier boundary ditch on a similar alignment.
In the centre of the site (Area 3) the topsoil/subsoil interface was gradual and uneven, suggesting that this part of the site was not ploughed in recent times. A concentration of anthropic soil, deepened and enriched by human occupation material, occurred in the west end of this area, and also a large ‘cooking pit’ pit with mixed fills that included ashes, heat-affected stones, charcoal, burnt bone fragments and charred cereal (oats, barley) and weed seeds. Shallow ditches crossed the area on north-south and east-west alignments, but it is not clear that these bounded the occupation area. A solitary skeleton was found at the base of the topsoil, possibly lying in a shallow ditch or furrow remnant. The skeleton was extended, oriented and supine. Analysis by Linda Lynch identified it as the remains of an adolescent female. A spinal pathology was noted but no other evidence for trauma or disease. A piece of worked red deer antler (a tine, sawed off at the base), was the only other find in this part of the site, apart from occasional modern rubbish and some animal bone of unknown date, from topsoil.
The south-east part of the site (Area 4) was on sloping ground that had evidently been scarped or graded in the recent past. The topsoil was a thin sandy loam, giving way abruptly to sands and coarse gravels. Two large pits contained modern rubbish (plastic fertiliser sacks, remnant sheep carcasses) and other rubbish was found intermittently throughout the area. No archaeological features were discovered and there were no finds.
Slot trench 1 (by Area 1) investigated a linear embanked feature at the western boundary of the site but was abandoned when this was discovered to be a feature of disturbed ground including modern rubble. Slot trenches 2 and 3 (between Areas 3 and 4) were cut across a low curvilinear bank near the centre of the site but this was discovered to be a modern feature associated with a drain outfall for surface water from the village. Slot trenches 4, 5 and 6 (by Area 4) were cut across a low, broad embanked feature at the eastern boundary of the site, by a modern field wall. This may be a remnant of an earlier field boundary bank—a predecessor to the wall—or may possibly be a ‘headland’ that developed at the margins of medieval ploughlands.
Radiocarbon dating of the skeleton and cereal grains from Area 3 is proposed.
Test excavations were undertaken on behalf of the Ardrahan Development Project (St Mary’s GAA Club) and were generously supported by TVAS Archaeology (Ireland) Ltd and Martin Murphy Plant Hire.
Castletaylor, Ardrahan, Co. Galway
