County: Galway Site name: Drumacoo Churchyard, Ballinderreen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA103-118 Licence number: E4568; C663
Author: Jerry O'Sullivan
Site type: Monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 539541m, N 716853m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.198675, -8.904861
An early ecclesiastical site at Drumacoo, near Kilcolgan, in south County Galway, is still in use as a rural 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 (GA103-118).
Monitoring of entrance and parking improvements by Galway County Council took place in June 2016 (Phase 2), completing work begun in October 2014 (Phase 1), as described in a previous contribution by the writer.
The Phase 2 improvements involved: a) levelling up an area of ground outside the entrance with topsoil spread over a geotextile membrane, b) creating five parking spaces by levelling another area outside the entrance with a shallow fill of gravel over a geotextile membrane, and c) removing a modern spoil mound that was created during works to extend the graveyard in 2002.
None of the works in 2016 resulted in any disturbance to archaeological features or deposits. No archaeological objects were found and no samples were taken for dating or analysis.
Galway County Council
