County: Mayo Site name: Claggarnagh East
Sites and Monuments Record No.: NA Licence number: E005310; Ministerial Direction No.: A069
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: —
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 509660m, N 786815m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.822989, -9.372116
The author was commissioned by Wills BAM JV to undertake a programme of archaeological testing of the site of a proposed Topsoil Storage Area (TSA12) at Claggarnagh East Townland, Co. Mayo.
The area is located 6.1km to the southwest of Castlebar in Claggarnagh East townland, to the immediate south of the new N5 road corridor. There are no recorded monuments within the proposed site boundary; The nearest recorded monuments are a now redundant record to the north (MA078-045---) and a burnt mound (MA078-070----) to the northeast. Test excavations in advance of the development for the new N5 road exposed the remains of a 19th-century cottage and burnt stone spreads more than 500m to the west of the site.
Archaeological testing at Claggarnagh East was carried out in dry and overcast conditions on 5 February 2021 using a 20-tonne backhoe excavator with a 2m-wide toothless, ditching bucket. In total, only five of the proposed thirteen trenches were excavated. The testing programme was suspended following the discovery of a burnt mound in Trench 2. This feature found in the northwest of the subject area was conspicuous as a concentration of fire-reddened and -cracked stone in a black charcoal-rich deposit located at the break of slope of a hill in marshy ground.
In order to establish the nature and extent of the site, the trench was extended to the west. A 7m north-south by 8m section of the mound was exposed demonstrating that it was a substantial feature. The burnt mound, possible fulachta fiadh, was exposed in the northern half of Test Trench 2 at the base of a slope breaking to boggy ground centred on ITM E509591, N786876, 34.246m OD. The feature was first noted approximately 58m north of the access track to the south and 12m east of the western field boundary. The burnt spread was not visible above ground but on excavation presented as a low mound of black, charcoal-enriched, heat-fractured sandstone under a mantle of topsoil. To ascertain its extent, an area 5m wide east-west by 9m was exposed to the west of the trench. The fire-reddened cracked stone in a matrix of blackened coarse sandy silt was mostly concentrated in an area measuring 5m in diameter petering towards the edges over a 7m north-south by 8m area. The south of the spread was cut by a French drain running north-east/south-west.
The field was deemed unsuitable for topsoil storage due to the presence of the burnt mound, which was covered in geotextile and backfilled.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
