County: Wexford Site name: Great Island
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 24E0413
Author: Liam Coen c/o Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy
Site type: Testing, no archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 669237m, N 615120m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.283391, -6.985246
Test excavations took place on 18 April 2024. Conditions were clear and dry. The site comprised of a pasture field that was markedly sloped with a drop of around 15m between the higher south-western corner and the lower north-eastern corner. Two evenly spaced trenches were excavated. Trench 1 was adjusted slightly to the south of the agreed Method Statement location in order to avoid a water-main pipe laid along the northern border of the pasture field in recent years. The backfilled cutting for the water-main was encountered at the western end of Trench 1. The underlying subsoil was an orangey-brown and brown mottled loose shaley stoney clay.
The remains of several linear features were identified in both trenches. Filled with a similar brown sandy silt, no datable artefacts were retrieved from the features. It is thought they represent relatively recent agricultural activity such as plough or cultivation furrows and field drains and are not of archaeological significance. Several patches of darkened soil with charcoal or red oxidised clay were assessed but, principally due to their irregular extent and often shallow depths, were deemed to be non-archaeological.
No features, deposits or finds of archaeological significance were identified during the course of test excavations.
Lynwood House, Ballinteer, Dublin 16
