2022:534 - Ballykilty Manor, Ballykilty, Quin, Clare

Archaeological testing took place prior to works to restore, refurbish and upgrade the existing Ballykilty Manor and to extend the building n order to provide a new hotel. Most of the site was revealed to be disturbed by work relating to the current 18th-19th-century building (SMR CL042-023) that was in use as a hotel until the 1990s. A single potential archaeological feature, an undated mortar-lined hollow, was found south-east of the manor house. Full excavation of this feature is recommended.
The hollow was 15m wide in the test trench, it was not visible at ground level as it was beneath a mound of stones; the combined height of the base of the hollow and the centre of the mound of stones was 1.3m. The hollow was lined with a layer of lime mortar which, where removed (at the north end) was 0.1m thick and overlay 0.1m of soil over bedrock. Elsewhere the mortar was not removed; here the stratigraphy was recorded from that level upwards. In the centre of the hollow the mortar was sealed by a 0.1m-thick soil layer, which was beneath a 0.4m layer of limestone rubble, with some lime present on the stones suggesting they represent a demolished structure. Above the rubble was a 0.1m-thick layer of orange silty clay that was sealed by a 0.1m-thick layer of tarmac and gravel representing a former car park surface. Above this surface sat the mound of stone rubble that formed the field boundary here, 0.6m thick at its thickest. The purpose of the mortar-lined hollow is not clear and its extent east and west of the trench could not be established. No artefacts were recovered, and the date of the hollow is not known.

TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare