County: Mayo Site name: McDermott Street, Ballina
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 17E0552
Author: Tamlyn McHugh, Fadó Archaeology
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 523922m, N 819495m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.118872, -9.163706
The proposed development work entails the construction of a new 650-pupil school, associated access, car parking facilities and recreational areas on a site comprising c. 5.6ha of pastureland at Ballina, Co. Mayo. The site is bordered by the ‘Rockwell’ residential estate and agricultural lands to the north; St Patrick’s Church and Parochial House, Scoil Iosa, St Dymphna’s/St Nicholas’s Special School and existing St Mary’s Secondary School to the south; agricultural lands to the east; ‘Slí Ectra’ road and agricultural lands to the west. The site is accessed via a rough track to the south extending from McDermott Street.
Assessment of the site was carried out following a further information request set out by the planning section of Mayo County Council (Planning No. P17/561). Following this testing took place from 16 to 21 November 2017. A total of 25 linear archaeological test trenches were excavated across the entire area, comprising a total of 1890m of trenches across four large fields.
During the course of test trenching in Field 1 archaeological material was uncovered in Test Trench 6. It consisted a burnt spread material measuring 10m east-west by 2m. Investigating the full extent of burnt spread was beyond the scope of the programme of testing. The burnt spread was covered in geotextile material and re-covered in soil to preserve it in situ. No other material of an archaeological nature was found during the course of testing.
17 Cooldrumman, Upper Carney, Co. Sligo
