2023:435 - WILLIAMSTOWN, CORRALOUGH, BALLYROE, CARROWNDERRY, Galway

The Ballyroe to Smyth's Garage, Williamstown scheme in Co. Galway forms part of a larger nationwide Water Network Programme that is being undertaken by Uisce Éireann. The scheme involved the installation of c.1,101m of rehabilitated water mains. The groundworks for the scheme consisted of several access pits (AP) to facilitate the pipe-bursting method and sections of open-cut trenching located along Main Street (R360) and an unnamed road to the east of the town in the townlands of Ballyroe, Carrownderry and Corralough, Co. Galway.
The monitoring followed a high-level Cultural Heritage Screening Assessment (CHSA) undertaken for the scheme by Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS) in April 2023 and updated in August 2023. The CHSA found that the Ballyroe to Smyth's Garage scheme traverses the Zone of Notification (ZoN) for an enclosure (GA006-007----). The scheme also passes through the town of Williamstown which is listed on the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) (GA006-061----). In addition to this, there was potential for unrecorded archaeological remains to exist in the vicinity of several Cultural Heritage (CH) sites including CH02 (kiln, site of), CH03 (well, site of), CH07 (culvert, site of) and CH10 (watercourse/townland boundary) which are depicted on either the first-edition six-inch (1840) and/or 25-inch (1893) Ordnance Survey maps. The CHSA recommended archaeological monitoring within the ZoN for enclosure (GA006-007----) and 20m either side and along the westernmost 360m of the scheme through the town of Williamstown (GA006-061----), including the site of the well (CH03) and in the vicinity of the kiln (CH02), culvert (CH07) and watercourse/townland boundary (CH10), and 20m either side due to potential for archaeological remains to be present at these locations.
The archaeological monitoring was carried out intermittently between 11 October and 21 November 2023. The excavation of several APs and sections of a continuous open-cut trenching were archaeologically monitored. APs measured between 1.6–3.6m by 0.7–3m by 1.2–1.4m in depth and the sections of open-cut trenching measured between 5–15m by 0.7–2m by 1.2–1.4m in depth. Due to the fact that these APs and trenches were excavated along the existing water main, the ground, underlying a 0.2–0.3m deep modern road surface that consisted of tarmac and gravel, was heavily disturbed. The natural subsoil consisted of mid-brownish yellow stoney-silty sand or mid-orangey brown stoney-sandy clay to a depth of 1.2–1.4m.
No potential archaeological objects, features or deposits were noted during the archaeological monitoring along the Ballyroe to Smyth's Garage, Williamstown scheme.

Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare. V15 C780