County: Mayo Site name: Upper Quay Hill, Westport
Sites and Monuments Record No.: MA088-028 Licence number: 18E0035
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 497994m, N 784348m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.798671, -9.548419
Monitoring of groundworks at a development at Upper Quay Hill in Westport, Co. Mayo, was carried out between 26 February and 3 July 2018. The development consisted of the demolition of an existing house and the construction of a new dwelling house and associated site works.
The monitoring was a condition of planning and was necessary as the development site was located within the constraint for an enclosure (MA088-028). There was no surface trace of the enclosure, which was depicted on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1838 but not on subsequent editions. It was located to the east of the proposed development, on the summit of Quay Hill, the site of which is now the location of a modern dwelling.
The existing house on the development site, a derelict cottage, was part of a terrace of houses on the south side of Upper Quay Hill. The small cottage, which was located on the west-facing slope of Upper Quay Hill, was constructed of mortared rubble and had a modern flat-roofed extension to the rear. A narrow, 4.8m wide, back garden to the rear of the dwelling was overgrown and filled with domestic rubbish.
Monitoring of the groundworks revealed modern activity associated with the demolished cottage. No evidence of the enclosure was found. Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered.
4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Rd., Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
