2025:667 - Rinville West, Galway

Archaeological monitoring of ground disturbance associated with a development of a sports ground in Rinville West townland, Oranmore, County Galway was undertaken in two phases with the the initial phase completed over a period of 12 days from 13 January 2025 and the final stage completed over a period of 10 days from 3 March 2025. The development site is located in an area of archaeological significance with a number of ringforts in the immediate vicinity. One ringfort site (GA094-130) is located within the development site. Previous archaeological work associated with the development includes an archaeological assessment, geophysical survey and archaeological pre-development testing (License 18E0459).

As per the condition of planning a buffer zone was established around the recorded monument (GA095-130) with harris fencing to prevent machinery enroaching on the monument. A 4m wide strip was excavated around the buffer zone of the ringfort to accommodate an access road/walkway. The stratigraphy generally consisted of sod and topsoil 0.25-0.3m deep over a light brown sandy clay with occasional stone inclusions. On the higher ground, to the north and east of the ringfort, sod and topsoil 0.2m overlay the light brown subsoil and the natural sandy gravel layer. A linear feature to the north-west of the ringfort was recorded for a length of 6m. Orientated roughly north-south it was cut into the natural subsoil and measured 0.45m in width. A section cut through the feature recorded a depth of 0.1-0.14m. The feature is likely to be agricultural in origin. A  layer of stone was encountered directly below topsoil in the area of the carpark in the south west of the site. Orientated north-east/south-west, it extended for a length of 57m and was 3.5-3.8m in width. A 10m section of the feature in the south-west was manually cleaned back and recorded. It is the remains of a cobbled roadway that extended to the boundary of the graveyard and is likely to have been associated with the former Rinville Demesne. It is not indicated on the various editions of the ordnance survey maps but may have functioned as a farm track within the demesne. Elsewhere on site sod and topsoil 0.2-0.25m overlay a brown sandy clay and/or grey silt.

No artefacts of archaeological significance were recorded in the course of monitoring.