County: Galway Site name: Drumacoo
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA103-118 Licence number: E4568
Author: Jerry O'Sullivan
Site type: Churchyard entrance (monitoring)
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 539541m, N 716853m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.198816, -8.903705
An early ecclesiastical site at Drumacoo, near Kilcolgan, in south County Galway, is still in use as a graveyard. The remains include a ruined medieval church, holy well and early modern burial vault. Collectively they are designated a National Monument (Ref. 254) and a Recorded Monument (RMP GA103-118). The present report is concerned with archaeological monitoring of entrance improvements by Galway County Council in late 2014.
The churchyard and its buildings are in the Guardianship of the State but the access road is privately owned by a neighbouring landowner. A local Graveyard Committee carries out light maintenance works within the graveyard (grasscutting; litter removal) and promoted the need for access improvements, which were carried out by Galway County Council in 2014.
The improvements involved resurfacing the existing access road, erecting a post-and-rail fence along one side of the road and construction of three new masonry piers for a metal stile and gate. Ground disturbance was minimal as the posts were all driven and the foundation pits for the three masonry gate piers were all less than 0.9m square by 0.5m deep.
A loose, dark, humic topsoil with midden inclusions was observed in the foundation pits for the piers. This probably derives from a relatively recent period, when a settlement cluster of small houses and their outbuildings (a clachan) was established in the fields surrounding the old graveyard. Otherwise, nothing significant was observed.
c/o Galway County Council
