County: Galway Site name: NUI, Newcastle, Galway
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA082-071--- Licence number: 21E0531
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: Urban fringe; no archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 527787m, N 728242m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.299545, -9.083327
The author was commissioned to carry out a programme of licensed archaeological monitoring during August-September 2021 on the site of a new Student Accommodation Scheme at Newcastle, Galway, north of the existing Corrib Village campus. The site lies to the west of a cashel (GA082-071----) and part of the site lies within the Zone of Notification for the monument.
Previous on-site trial trenching undertaken by Aegis Ltd. in May 2018 did not expose any finds or features but recommended that ‘all topsoil stripping, associated with the development be archaeologically monitored’.
Archaeological monitoring of site clearance works involving stripping topsoil down to natural gravelly clay. The site, located to the north of the existing Corrib Village and west of the NII Galway park and Ride, is on an undulating green field site that was overgrown with scrub bush, briars, and long grass. To the north-east the ground broke to wet grassland. To the north-west of the site running parallel to the river was the route of the old Galway to Clifden Railway Line.
Monitoring initially involved the stripping of a haul road to access the building blocks to the north followed by the phased stripping of ground throughout the site. The excavation work was carried out using a 36-tonne backhoe excavator with a 2m-wide toothless bucket. Excavation exposed a mid-brown silty topsoil averaging 300mm overlying a natural orangey grey boulder clay, with frequent medium sized limestone boulders. Below this deeper excavation exposed a grey clayey sand with gravelly stones. The only features exposed were occasional French drains and the intermittent trace of the stone walls featured on the OS first edition map. No archaeology was found.
To the west of the completely overgrown and inaccessible cashel SMR GA082-071—, a substantial rubble stone boundary wall was left in situ as a protective barrier to prevent any unauthorised excavations in the area.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
