County: Mayo Site name: Creggaunnahorna
Sites and Monuments Record No.: NA Licence number: 21E0039
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 499068m, N 786261m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.816065, -9.532750
The author was commissioned by Wills Bros. Ltd. to undertake a programme of archaeological testing of the site of a proposed Topsoil Storage Area (TSA14) at Creggannnahorna Townland, Co. Mayo.
The TSA is intended for the temporary storage of topsoil for the N5 Westport to Turlough Road Project. The area will be stripped of topsoil, hardstand materials laid for access to stockpiles and handling. The area will have the topsoil re-spread and shall be rehabilitated to agricultural use post-completion of the project.
The area is located 1.8km to the north-north-west of Westport in Creggaunnahorna townland, to the immediate east of the new N5 road corridor. There are no recorded monuments within the proposed site boundary; The nearest recorded monument is a MA077-043—classified as a standing stone in nearby Slaugar townland located 115m to the southeast of the proposed TSA.
Testing was carried out on 2 March 2021 using a 22-tonne backhoe excavator with a 2m-wide grading bucket. Ten trenches were excavated. Excavations throughout the site exposed natural ground of mid-brown silty clay over natural boulder clay on the firmer sloping ground with thick bog along the lower northern range running parallel to the drainage channel. The only features of note were a series of cultivation furrows on the higher elevation and modern drains along the slope and in the bog. No archaeological finds or features were recovered or identified during the course of the investigations.
3 Gort na RÃ, Athenry, Co. Galway
