Excavation of the Smaller Court-Tomb and Associated Hut Sites at Ballyglass, County Mayo

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, 1998-01, Vol.98C (4), p.125-175
• Main Authors: Nualláin, Seán Ó., Donnabháin, Barra Ó.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bones; Boulders; Cairns; Charcoal; Excavations; Revetments; Scrapers; Subsoil; Topsoil; Trenches
• ISSN: 0035-8991; 2009-0048

Excavations at the smaller court-tomb at Ballyglass, Co. Mayo, took place in 1968 and 1972. The initial work confirmed that the ruined structure consisted of a concave façade leading through a short passage to an oval court, which gave access to a two-chambered gallery. The northern side of the cairn was missing, but the base of a dry-stone revetment survived at the south. The tomb was found to be resting on an artificial layer of grey clay that extended southwards towards a nearby road fence. Removal of the grey layer outside the revetment in 1972 revealed the filled-in wall trenches of a subrectangular hut site. The trenches of a second hut were uncovered, immediately below the topsoil, at the northern end of the tomb façade. A total of 490 stone implements or parts of implements were recovered during excavations, and all but 23 of these were of chert. Most of the finds came from the topsoil covering the site, but almost 80 were in sealed positions beneath the grey layer or in the wall trenches of the northern hut. The finds included 192 concave scrapers, 84 rounded scrapers, nine arrowheads and a polished stone axehead. The presence of almost 1700 chert flakes or other pieces testifies to knapping activities on the site. Three dependable radiocarbon determinations from the site returned dates of 2320 BC, 2320 BC and 2240 BC.