2022:588 - Liscappul, Mackney, Garbally Demense, Ballinasloe, Galway

Archaeological monitoring of groundworks was undertaken for Mackney Roundabout to Banertons Garage Water Mains Scheme located along the road carriageway (R446) on the south-western outskirts of Ballinasloe in Co. Galway. The monitoring was carried out on 20 January 2022 and between 28–31 March 2022 on one trial hole (TH 6) and two sections of a continuous open-cut exploratory trench (Trench 1 and Trench 2) located at the northern and the southern ends of the scheme.
Trench 1 was located 20m outside of the Zone of Notification (ZoN) to the north of the site of a castle - unclassified (GA087-179----). It measured 100m long, 0.7m wide and 1m deep. No potential archaeological objects, features, deposits or human bones were noted in this trench.
Trench 2 and TH 6 were located within, and 20m either side of, the ZoN of children’s burial ground (GA087-072). TH 6 measured 3m long, 0.7m wide and 1.2m deep and within it a layer of natural subsoil consisting of light-greyish and brownish yellow gravelly silty clay was found. Trench 2 measured 110m long, 0.7m wide and 1m deep. The stratigraphic sequence in Trench 2 comprised 0.03m of tarmac sealing a 0.3–0.7m deep layer of hardcore gravel and stones, overlying a 0.2–0.7m deep layer of the natural subsoil which consisted of mid-greyish yellow and dark-brown stony silty clay or bedrock outcrop. No potential features or human bones relating to the burial ground were revealed in this trench.
A ditch was revealed in Trench 2 at a depth of 0.4m below ground level and was located to southeast of the children’s burial ground (GA087-072----). The ditch was filled by a minimum of three deposits. The upper fill consisted of a mid-orangey brown clayey silt 0.1–0.2m deep which sealed a 0.6m deep deposit of mid-brown clayey silt with occasional inclusions of small stones, charcoal flecks and small fragments of unburnt animal bones, which overlay a possible deposit of large sub-angular stones which may represent the remnants of a dry stone boundary wall. The ditch was in line with two trees overgrowing the former field boundary to the south of the road. It is not shown on the first-edition six-inch Ordnance Survey map (1837), but it does correspond with a field boundary depicted on the first-edition twenty-five-inch Ordnance Survey map (1893).

Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare