County: Mayo Site name: Hawthorn Lodge
Sites and Monuments Record No.: Vicinity of a ringfort MA078-054-- Licence number: 18E0211
Author: Billy Quinn
Site type: Vicinity of ringfort; post-medieval ha-ha
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 516768m, N 788314m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.837642, -9.264593
Monitoring of topsoil stripping and excavation works at Hawthorn Lodge, Castlebar Golf Club, Castlebar, Co. Mayo took place between 11 April and 18 May 2018. Prior to any ground works taking place, an area around enclosure MA078-054 was marked out and subsequently fenced off to protect it from any unnecessary tracking by machinery.
The excavations were carried out by a backhoe excavator with a ditching bucket. Ground conditions varied but typically the sod and topsoil were wet or damp making tracking on slopes difficult. Typically, the brown silty sod and subsoil (C1) measured 320mm thick and overlay a grey gravelly boulder clay (C2) with pockets of sand and frequent cropping rock. One discreet fire spot (ITM 516713 788181) was identified but following testing was deemed non-archaeological.
Stripping work along the fairway of hole 14 and of the water feature exposed natural ground with no features of archaeological potential. West of MA078-054 on the existing course and within the ‘zone of notification’ for the monument topsoil stripping exposed made-up ground approximately 0.36m deep; this ground was infilled in the mid-1990s during a redesign of the 12th green. No finds or features of archaeological significance were noted in this area.
At the client's request and following discussions with the National Monuments a proposed 8m access point over a ha-ha wall, part of the Hawthorn Lodge demesne, was manually investigated. The work was carried out by the author and an assistant using hand tools. Works involved clearing an 8m section along the ditch and removing overgrowth from the wall. In addition, a 3m wide cutting extending from the base of the wall to the top of the ditch was dug to expose the original ditch cut and foundation of the feature. The wall face survives to an average height of 1.65m and is of uneven, random rubble construction using roughly hewn limestones with smaller packing/wedge stones. The associated ditch running the length of the retaining wall measures approximately 2.2m wide at the top, with a gradually sloping side, breaking to a 0.55-0.65m wide base at the bottom of the wall. The ditch was covered with a mantle of sod overlying a 0.25m thick layer of compacted brown silty clay with patches of peat at the base. Underlying this was a layer of cobble sized, sub-angular stones. Other than surface debris no finds were retrieved from the cutting.
Moore Archaeological and Environmental Services Ltd. 3 Gort na Ri, Athenry, Co. Galway
