County: Roscommon Site name: Leggatinty 9
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E005445; Ministerial Direction No.: A077
Author: Alan Healy
Site type: Burnt mounds
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 573342m, N 789311m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.852581, -8.405166
Leggatinty 9 was excavated in advance of construction of the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge Road Project in County Roscommon by Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS) for Roscommon County Council (RCC) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The site consisted of a burnt spread. It was identified during drainage works for this Road Development Project at Construction Stage.
Leggatinty 9 consisted of two burnt mounds that sealed archaeological features including one timber-lined trough, one wattle-lined trough, two disturbed/robbed-out troughs, five pits, a cluster of 30 stake-holes, three mounds of upcast and one additional archaeological deposit under the eastern mound.
Two of the troughs contained exceptionally well-preserved timber and wattle linings. The linings incorporated split and dressed timbers, some with lap joints, roundwood and wattle construction, and the area behind one of the linings had also been packed with clay and heather. The troughs were also exceptionally deep: one was just under 1m deep (from the surface of the surrounding natural) and the other was 1.46m deep.
Two finds were recovered from the excavation: a modified stone cobble with an hourglass perforation (interpreted as a macehead) and a piece of worked wood from the base of one of the troughs. Bulk soil and archaeological wood samples were retrieved for environmental analyses. Although presently undated, the burnt mounds likely date to the Bronze Age.
Post-excavation works have begun and will include analysis of the samples, including radiocarbon dating, and analysis of the artefacts with the intention of furthering the interpretation of the site.
Archaeological Management Solutions, Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare, V15 C780
