County: Clare Site name: St Cronan's, Tuamgraney
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL028-058 Licence number: 17E0432
Author: Rory Sherlock
Site type: Church and graveyard
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 563707m, N 683017m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.896789, -8.539393
Monitoring was undertaken of the manual excavation of three small foundation trenches for new signage in the graveyard of St Cronan’s Church, Tuamgraney. The largest of the three trenches excavated, Trench 1, lay 3m south of the southern pier of the entrance gateway and was positioned immediately beside the inner face of the roadside wall of the graveyard. The trench measured 1.25m x 0.66m by 0.7m deep. It was excavated to provide the base for a large sign which will rise over the roadside wall and inform passers-by of the location, age and name of the church. The excavated material consisted of a loose greyish-brown silty topsoil which contained frequent stones. At a depth of 0.7m below current ground level, a pale yellowish clayey subsoil was encountered, and excavation stopped at this point.
Trench 2, measuring 0.5m x 0.3m wide by0.5m deep, was located 14.5m west of the entrance gateway on the northern side of the main pathway. It was positioned close to a large beech tree and so numerous roots were encountered during the excavation – these meant that the trench was somewhat sub-triangular in plan. The excavated material was a silty greyish-brown topsoil which was up to 0.4m in depth, below which a yellowish clayey subsoil was encountered.
Trench 3, measuring 0.55m x 0.35m wide by 0.33m deep, was located 3m west of the western gable of the church. The excavated material was a sandy soil which appears to have had a high mortar content and some fragments of broken roofing slates and a small number of bone fragments were also noted.
No features of archaeological importance were noted during the monitoring programme and the new information signs were subsequently installed.
Birchall, Oughterard, Co. Galway
