2024:564 - Cappanaveagh, Salthill, Galway, Galway

Archaeological monitoring was commissioned of topsoil stripping and excavation works as part of ground works for a single dwelling house development in Salthill, Galway city. The monitoring follows an archaeological assessment and test excavations in 2020. These were required as a planning condition due to the presence of a recorded archaeological monument at the site.

The proposed development site is located at 8 Rockhill in Salthill, in Cappanaveagh townland, approximately 2km southwest of Galway city centre. The property parcel has a surface area of approximately 510m2, and it is currently a vacant plot, with houses built on the adjacent plots to the north and south.

An archaeological monument, classified as a ringfort (GA094-015--) and labelled on historic maps as ‘Cappanaveagh Fort’,  transects the subject site. The monument’s primary grid coordinates are 15m north of the proposed development site. The monument is documented on the basis of 19th-century maps and written historical records. It is classified ‘Ringfort – unclassified’  though no physical traces have been recorded. The exact location of the ringfort shown on these maps cannot be verified, and inspection of the site for the archaeological inventory of County Galway in the 1980s and for the present assessment found no traces evident on the surface.

A detailed assessment of the proposed development was completed by William Anderson in 2020. After the assessment a programme of archaeological testing was carried out at the site. The testing at 8 Rockhill found that topsoil has accumulated in modern times, though here it overlays reddish-yellow sand natural subsoil.  No archaeological features were identified during the testing, and it was concluded that there are no extant traces of the recorded ringfort or any other archaeological features within the proposed development area. Significant ground disturbance of the area means there is low potential and therefore that the development will have no potential impacts on archaeology.

Archaeological monitoring of topsoil stripping at 8 Rockhill was undertaken on 16 of December 2024. The monitoring observed topsoil was present to a maximum depth of up to 1m at the western end of the site, at the top of a slope which faces east and below a tall boundary wall. This soil is filled with modern detritus. There is also thick topsoil present at the break of the slope, though across the more level central and eastern parts of the site there is very little topsoil. A layer of granitic sand is present below the topsoil on the slope at the west of the site but is thin or absent elsewhere, where bedded granite is on or very close to the surface.

No archaeological features or potential features were observed during the monitoring. The testing and monitoring did not detect any evidence of the recorded ringfort (GA094-015), and it is concluded that this monument was either located elsewhere or that it has been destroyed as part of quarrying and house development activities which have occurred since the late 19th century.