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EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

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Mayo<br />

Castlegar, Co. Mayo<br />

Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.<br />

Grid Ref: M35647631 (135642/276311)<br />

SMR No: MA101-026<br />

Excavation Licence: 99E0037<br />

Excavation Duration/Year: 1999.<br />

Site Directors: S. Zajac (Mayo County <strong>Council</strong>).<br />

<strong>The</strong> site consists of a sub-circular enclosure set on the end of a gravel ridge. <strong>The</strong> internal<br />

diameter of the site measured 48m by 40m, and was enclosed by a slight bank, and a shallow<br />

ditch (2.5m wide by 0.2m deep) (Fig. 218). Excavation revealed that the ditch had been<br />

backfilled in three stages. Although the upper fill appeared to be modern, it was possible that<br />

the earlier fills may have been done deliberately after the abandonment of the enclosure.<br />

Bones extracted from sealed contexts within the lowest ditch fill were used for radiocarbon<br />

dating (see below).<br />

<strong>The</strong> interior of the site was badly degraded and had been largely destroyed by ridge-andfurrow<br />

agriculture. A souterrain, however, was discovered within the bounds of the enclosing<br />

ditch, along with a narrow cobbled walkway, which presumably linked it to a (now destroyed)<br />

above-ground structure. Finds from the site included five blue-glass beads; a fragment of a<br />

decorated blue-glass bracelet; whet stones; a bone knife handle; the broken base of a rotary<br />

quern; the fragment of a millstone; and a possible loom weight.<br />

Fig. 218: Plan of enclosure at Castlegar, Co. Mayo (after Zajac & Scully 2004, 25).<br />

433

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