County: Galway Site name: Moyveela
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA095-096 Licence number: 17E0412
Author: Billy Quinn
Site type: Vicinity of earthwork (GA095-096)
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 544470m, N 723458m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.258566, -8.832250
Monitoring for the development of a dwelling house near an earthwork (GA095-096) in Moyveela townland, Co. Galway took place on 11 and 12 September 2017. The greenfield site gently slopes from south-east to north-west with intervening undulations. The enclosure, located near the roadside, survives as a copse of trees with an overgrown, curvilinear, stony bank to the north-east. There are no above-ground features within its interior or to the east of its circuit.
Excavation for the site clearance works was carried out by a 13-tonne, backhoe excavator using a 2m-wide grading bucket. Stripping along the proposed driveway, to the west of the enclosure, exposed modern fill material under a thin topsoil. According to the landowner this material was infilled during a local road realignment works carried out in the mid-1990s. These works also resulted in the rebuilding of the roadside boundary wall. The fill comprised gravel and tarmac and continued from the site entrance for approximately 30m along the southern perimeter. Works to the west of the monument in the footprint of both the house and garage exposed an orange brown silty clay topsoil with an average depth of 0.15-0.2m. Below this was a grey-brown natural clay and gravels with frequent limestone rock.
No finds were recovered nor were features of archaeological potential noted during the monitoring programme.
Moore Archaeological and Environmental Services Ltd. No 3 Gort Na Ri, Athenry, Co. Galway
