County: Mayo Site name: Tobernakill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: MA022-017 Licence number: 16E0044
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 520506m, N 829933m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.212127, -9.218698
The test excavation of a site in advance of its development at Tobernakill, Killala, Co. Mayo was carried out on 25 February 2016. The development consisted of the demolition of an existing dwelling and the construction of a two-storey dwelling and all associated site works. Testing was required due to the location of the site partly within the constraint for Killala (MA022-017) with the site of holy well, 'Tobernakill' (MA022-017002), located a short distance away to the west. Cartographic evidence suggested the proposed development site was filled up during the 19th or early 20th century, possibly during the construction of an adjacent causeway for the railway which opened in 1893. The site was located in a relatively flat field of pasture with a two-storey dwelling of late 19th/early 20th-century date at the west end. A ruined roofless concrete outhouse was located near the southern corner of the site.
Testing consisted of the excavation (by machine) of three trenches, located to best cover the area of the proposed development. The trenches measured 9.3m, 14m amd 8.5m long, 1.6-1.8m wide and 1.5-2.25m deep. Below a thin layer of topsoil on the surface was re-deposited subsoil which appeared to have been brought into the site when the existing dwelling had an extension added in the late 1960s/early 1970s. A topsoil layer below would have been on the surface prior to that late 20th century activity. Fill below the lower topsoil layer contained the same range of artefacts suggesting a similar date. Loose sand and gravel layers below were disturbed layers which may have been on the surface (on the edge of Killala Bay) prior to the filling up of the site. Sandy layers exposed below the disturbed sand and gravel were natural and undisturbed deposits. The range of artefacts recovered and the nature of the different layers exposed supported the cartographic evidence that the site was created in the late 19th or early 20th century with further filling of the site in the second half of the 20th century. Nothing of archaeological significance was in evidence.
4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
