County: Mayo Site name: Drumneen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: NA Licence number: E005177; Ministerial Direction No.: A069
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 507173m, N 786193m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.816963, -9.409690
The author was commissioned by Wills BAM JV to undertake a programme of archaeological testing of the site of a proposed external deposition area (EDA06B) at Drumneen townland, Co. Mayo.
Testing was carried out in dry and overcast conditions on 3-5 March 2021 using a 21-tonne backhoe excavator with a 2m-wide toothless, ditching bucket. In total 14 test trenches were excavated across two fields to the immediate south of the N5 road take. Additional proposed testing in the fields to the south was suspended following the discovery of a burnt mound in Trench 10.
This feature (CHS1), found in rush-covered bog, had no above-ground expression. Excavations to the west of the trench cut through a concentrated layer of fire-reddened and -cracked stone in a black charcoal-rich sand. To establish the extent of the mound an area was opened to the north and south. The exposed mound was approximately 16m in diameter from north-west to south-east, with the core of the mound lying to the immediate south of the trench. The mound had a minimum thickness of 400mm.
Subsequent testing in T14, a trench following the interface of solid ground and bog, exposed a rough surface measuring 3.8m wide north-south composed of fire-cracked stone (CHS 2) cut by a field drain. A discreet trench extension to the west measuring approximately 5m by 2.5m uncovered some flat granite stones, average width 350mm, within a metalled stone layer. This feature was interpreted as a possible trackway, its exposed orientation leading east towards the burnt mound found in Trench 10.
Nothing further of archaeological significance was noted.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
