County: Mayo Site name: Various townlands
Sites and Monuments Record No.: NA Licence number: 17E0057
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: Monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 548280m, N 747275m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.472972, -8.779048
The author was commissioned by Shareridge Ltd. on behalf of Mayo County Council to undertake a programme of archaeological monitoring in various townlands located c. 7km south-east of Westport in County Mayo. The project was carried out between March and October 2017 and involved the laying of c. 10km of water pipe. The works involved excavating open trenches to accommodate pipework along road margins and in greenfield through wayleave areas. The development was the subject of an archaeological assessment prepared by Bernard Guinan of Mayo County Council.
All areas of greenfield were subject to monitoring and intermittent inspections were carried out along the margins of both regional and local access roads. Typically, the trenches were dug with a 0.35m wide V-shaped trenching bucket to a depth of 1m. Groundworks exposed a natural stratigraphy that varied from red brown sand to stony dark brown silt to bog.
Two sites of archaeological potential were noted in Knockroosky townland. These two areas contained charcoal-enriched material, however usable samples could not be retrieved. The sites are located at ITM 504292/782680 and ITM 504391/782648 respectively. Other features noted were stone-built agricultural drains in Mace South townland and the foundations of a structure featured on historic mapping in Forkfield/Gower townland. It was recommended that the enclosure site in Drumneen, MA089-031, be reclassified as a well. Elsewhere no archaeology was found, nor were any finds of archaeological significance recovered.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
