County: Roscommon Site name: Portaghard 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: NA Licence number: E005212
Author: Patrick Walsh
Site type: Lime kiln
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 569788m, N 792599m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.881932, -8.459504
Portaghard 1 was excavated in advance of construction of the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge Road Project in County Roscommon by Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS) for Roscommon County Council (RCC) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The site consisted of a limekiln, a wall foundation and modern ditches.
The site was located adjacent to a vernacular structure which still stood at the commencement of the project and is indicated on the 25-inch OS map (1914) but not on the first-edition six-inch OS map (1838). The vernacular structure was recorded in the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Roughan & O’Donovan-AECOM 2017, 283) and in the Stage (i)e Built Heritage Surveys (Registration No. S0133; Campbell 2021). After the building was cleared, the surrounding area was the subject of geophysical survey (Registration No. R000509) conducted by Target Archaeological Geophysics Ltd (Nicholls 2019) and Stage (i)a Standard Test Excavations (Hardy 2021). The geophysical survey identified a rectilinear pattern of strongly positive responses interpreted as subsurface remains associated with the vernacular dwelling (Nicholls 2019, 14). The testing identified the subsurface remains of a robbed-out wall foundation, a limekiln and a series of modern ditches (Hardy 2021).
The limekiln comprised an oval bowl (1.34m long, 1.28m wide and 0.4m deep) with a short, collapsed flue extending to the northwest. It was truncated by modern ditches on its north-eastern and north-western sides. The stone wall foundation was 2.1m long, 0.33m wide, 0.14m deep and orientated west-northwest to east-southeast. It appears to align with a boundary depicted on the 25-inch OS map (1914) and is likely the remains of a boundary wall associated with the vernacular structure.
No artefacts or ecofacts were found during the investigation. The site of Portaghard 1 has been fully excavated and all post-excavation analysis has been completed.
Archaeological Management Solutions Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare. V15 C780
