County: Galway Site name: Castlegrove West
Sites and Monuments Record No.: Vicinity of GA016-029--- Licence number: 22E0122
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 537117m, N 758298m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.570804, -8.949383
The proposed single dwelling house development site is within the former demesne lands of Castlegrove and is within 500m of 'Jennings’s Castle’ classified as a tower House (National Monument 428 and SMR GA016-021---). The proposed development area is within the Zone of Notification for SMR GA016-029----, a souterrain, found to the immediate north of the site. This monument is visible as an L-shaped hollow with lintel and infilled tunnel on a gentle rise in former demesne land.
In January 2022 a geophysical survey (21R0295) was carried out by Joanna Leigh including the proposed development area and extended to the north to determine the extent of the souterrain site. The gradiometer survey identified a response which corresponds with the collapsed souterrain entrance. A curvilinear response to the south of this may represent an associated outer ditched feature. This is located 35m to the north of the application area for the proposed development.
Archaeological testing of the subject site was subsequently carried out in variable conditions on 11 March 2022.
The green field site slopes from east to west towards a local access road in Castlegrove West, Co. Galway. Two north-west/south-east aligned trenches were excavated, each measuring 30m in length. Three north-east/south-west trenches were excavated, each measuring 20m in length giving a combined length of 120m. A backhoe excavator with a toothless ditching bucket of 1.9m width removed topsoil to natural subsoil and the excavated ground was assessed for the presence of archaeological features.
The general stratigraphy exposed was a dark brown silty topsoil over a yellowish-brown, gravelly natural subsoil.
Nothing of archaeological significance was noted.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
