County: Mayo Site name: Derrylea
Sites and Monuments Record No.: NA Licence number: E005154; Ministerial Direction No.: A069
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 511419m, N 787282m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.827487, -9.345543
The author was commissioned by Wills-BAM Joint Venture to undertake a programme of archaeological testing of the site of a proposed temporary topsoil storage area (TTSA) at Derrylea, Co. Mayo.
The TTSA is located in a green field of improved pasture and drained bog to the east of the existing N5 at Derrylea townland. There are no recorded monuments or extant structures within the boundaries of the site. The nearest archaeological monument to the TTSA is a crannog (MA078-046), in excess of 450m to the west-south-west, in Pheasanthill townland.
Nine test trenches were excavated at the site in generally bright and sunny conditions on 21 May 2020. The trenches were machine-excavated using a backhoe excavator with a 1.9m-wide toothless, ditching bucket.
In general the stratigraphy comprised a mid-brown sandy silty topsoil and sod ranging in depth from 200-400mm overlying a natural grey and yellowish gravelly clay subsoil with frequent inclusions of medium sized stones. At the southern part of the site there was an intervening layer of peat which reached up to 1.7m in depth.
Nothing of archaeological significance was noted during testing.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
