County: Roscommon Site name: Cloonfree
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RO029-009 Licence number: 16E0013
Author: Peter Casby (licence holder Elizabeth FitzPatrick)
Site type: Moated site
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 591291m, N 780557m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.774527, -8.132119
This licence was sought to retrieve sample material from the ditch-fill of moated site RO029-009) in the townland of Cloonfree, Co. Roscommon. This was carried out in order to analyse the pollen content thus providing a profile of vegetation over time. Material from the sample can be sieved to retrieve carbon-dateable matter at depths along the core that are identified by notable changes or events in the pollen profile. Using a 0.3mm diameter single gouge auger with an operational length of 1m, a vertical core sample was retrieved from the middle of the northern water-logged ditch. Location of core sample is ITM 591295, 780569. No other context was disturbed.
The corer went the full 1m into the soft material until it was stopped by a stone. The bottom 0.3m of material was a relatively soft grey clay. The upper core material was of brown soily consistency with a lot of leaf litter and woody material throughout. The uppermost 0.1-0.15m drained away on extraction due to its water content. The core sample was transferred to a sample tube, secured and sealed for transport to the Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit (PRU) at NUI Galway for the purpose of pollen analysis, which is being carried out at the time of writing.
School of Geography and Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway
