2024:076 - Wellpark Road, Ballybaan Beg, Galway, Galway

Monitoring of groundworks at a development located at Unit 1/2 Mervue Business & Technology Park, Wellpark Road, Galway, was carried out intermittently between 19 September 2023 and the 10 April 2024. The project consisted of the change of use of a building from industrial to educational use, the provision of additional car parking spaces with additional footpaths and ramps, along with a covered bicycle shelter. The monitoring was a condition of the planning permission. There were no recorded monuments located within or in the vicinity of the development site.

The development site was located at the north-west end of a block of commercial units in a business park located between the Tuam Road and the Wellpark Road. The site contained an existing single-storey building of late 20th-century (1970s/80s) date, surrounded by tarmac access roads and car parking, concrete paving and landscaped lawns.

The groundworks consisted of the excavation of a number of trenches for drainage within the building; the construction of an electricity switch room outside the south-west side of the building; new paving along the north-east side of the building; new car parking spaces, a bicycle shelter and a pedestrian path along the north-west side of the building. Pits were also excavated for the concrete bases for hoarding which was erected along the north-west side of the site.

The stratigraphy encountered during the monitoring consisted of modern or landscaped surfaces, above modern fills and a concrete foundation, above natural subsoils and bedrock. No artefacts were recovered. Noting of archaeological significance was in evidence. All the evidence on the site related to the construction and usage of the late 20th-century building.

4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, County Mayo