County: Galway Site name: Kilcolgan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA103-201--- Licence number: 19E0269
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 541870m, N 717910m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.208433, -8.870200
Testing of a brownfield site at Kilcolgan in advance of the proposed development of 8 two-storey dwellings took place on April 29 2019. The site lies to the rear of a service station and retail space east of the N67 in Kilcolgan village; it is accessed via a gateway from the south along the Kinvarra road.
The northern third of the site is near a cashel (GA103-201---). The cashel was inspected by the archaeological survey in 1992 and was found to be levelled with no visible surface trace. The development site is bounded to the north by a mature tree line, to the west and south by a hedge line and to the south-east by a section of a wall around a dwelling house and by a post and wire fence to the west of the adjacent development block (Restaurant, Petrol Station and Shop).
Subsequent to testing it was noted that almost the entire site had been previously excavated to natural subsoils and refilled with building rubble and mounds of fill. The only area which had not been disturbed or previously excavated was a rough track extending from the roadside gateway for approximately 40m. The underlying subsoil comprised a mid-brown sandy silt overlying natural subsoils. Five trenches were machine excavated in the least disturbed areas of the site. Trenches 1-4 all ran west-south-west/east-north-east across the middle third of the site in an area that has seen significant disturbance but may have contained natural levels. Trench 5 ran north-north-west/south-south-east parallel to the site's western border. The northern portion of the site, nearest the cashel, has been reduced to natural clay and gravel. The trenches were excavated using a grading bucket to natural subsoil.
Nothing of archaeological significance was noted.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
