County: Mayo Site name: Kilbride
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 18E0082
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 538178m, N 799096m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.937504, -8.941530
Pre-development testing of a site at Deerpark, in Kilbride townland, on the eastern outskirts of Swinford in County Mayo, was carried out on 8 and 9 March 2018. The development consisted of the construction of a 56-bedroom nursing home. The testing was required as part of a Request for Further Information by Mayo County Council and was necessary due to the size of the site, the scale of the development and the location of a site of a holy well (MA062-083) adjacent to the site.
The site consisted of two fields of scrub and overgrown pasture, on either side of a stream/drain. A small concrete pumphouse was located in the north-western corner. The holy well, of which there was no visible trace, was marked and named 'Toberbride' on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1838. On the 1919 edition it was shown as 'Toberbride (Site of)'. The site of the holy well was adjacent to a stream to the north-west of and across a boreen from the proposed development site.
The testing consisted of the excavation (by machine) of five trenches which measured 62m, 69.7m, 20m, 29.4m and 29.6m long respectively; 1.9-2.4m wide and 0.55-3.1m deep. Below the topsoil and peat on the surface was modern fill and natural subsoils.
The fill found in two of the trenches may have originated from the construction of the adjacent Swinford By-Pass (N5). The fill found in a third trench may have been the result of the dredging of an adjacent stream which formed the southern site boundary. Nothing of archaeological significance was in evidence.
4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, County Mayo
