2021:740 - Drumindoo, Mayo

The author was commissioned by Wills Bros. Ltd. to undertake a programme of archaeological testing of the site of a proposed topsoil deposition area (TSA016) at Drummindoo Townland, Co. Mayo as detailed herein. The TSA area is located 2.5km to the east-northeast of Westport to the immediate north of the new N5 road corridor. There are no recorded monuments within the proposed site boundary; the nearest recorded monuments are a ringfort (SMR MA088-014) 465m to the southeast. However, archaeological features have been recorded and excavated in the near vicinity of the area, as part of the N5 road scheme. These include two Bronze Age burnt mounds (Drummindoo 3 & 4) and an early medieval smithing site (Drummindoo 5), both less than 150m northeast of the TSA.

Testing was carried out on 9-10 June 2021 using a wide track 20-tonne backhoe excavator with a 2m-wide grading bucket. Excavations in the west of Field 2 in Trenches 3 and 7 exposed two separate features, Feature I was a burnt spread measuring approximately 11.8m in what appeared to be a relatively shallow long arc orientated roughly east-west. This spread had a concentration of stones to the north-west and patches of charcoal-enriched sandy silt in discreet concentrations deposited along a gentle slope. No other finds were evident. Feature 2 was found near the western end of Trench 7 in boggy ground. The site was conspicuous as a concentrated small mound of heat-shattered stone in a charcoal-rich matrix of sandy silt. Trench 7 ran over the core of this small site that measured 4.6m north-south by 5.8m, petering out to the edges and overlying dark peat. No timber elements were noted in the exposed section faces. No other features were found elsewhere. Following consultation with the Project Archaeologist, Richard Gillespie, it was decided to cover the features in geotextile and infill the trenches in advance of further mitigation.

3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway