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The
following images were captured by Mike Collins at
Sellerna Bay in Co Galway and seem to show the presence of field
walls which may be of prehistoric date. A full description by Mike
will be added to this page shortly. Some discussion of the site
has taken place on the Irish Archaeology discussion
group, and excerpts of that discussion are reproduced below. All
comments are by Mike himself.
09-10-01
...The oval mound is approx 2 to 3m max length, approx 2m wide and
1m high, stony matrix and grass covered, the stones (guestimated
by prodding with a trowel) are modern field wall in size. Could
be a result of field clearance since some of the arcing bank enclosing
it was denuded by cow/trample/some sort of damage and appeared substantially
stone free or it could be a cairn or a house platform (doubt that
though). Maybe a squint at the old OS 6 inch series maps might help
if anybody out there has easy access...Also,
fossil field boundaries just weren't looked for when this area seems
to have been last surveyed. The remnants even now are ambiguous
and easy to dismiss as 'modern'.
17-10-01
...The mound walls and banks could very well be prehistoric. The
Inventory for County Galway (West) actually has some 20 entries
in the Field Systems section. Not many but enough to strengthen
the feeling that the Sellerna Bay stretches of mound walls and banks
are prehistoric. Without dating them directly I'm going on the following:
their physical resemblance to a photo of pre-bog wall found at Ballynew
(Galway) ditto a photo in Archaeology Ireland 1995 (an issue devoted
to Bronze Age Ireland) of a stretch of BA mound wall on the Burren
some similar field boundaries (if this is what they are) just over
the hill from Sellerna Bay listed in the Galway Inventory. I was
unaware of these when visiting but will check them out if possible
when next over. ditto above on the nearby off-shore islands some
association between these boundaries and BA field monuments eg stone
rows and tombs and radiocarbon dates from a pre-bog wall at Derryinver
(Galway) which ranges 600-200 BC. This is a sample of material directly
underneath the wall. Also, the antiquity of these features has only
been recognised in the last few years which maybe explains why they
weren't recorded when the tomb was initially survey back in the
1970's.
All
images © 2001 Mike Collins
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last updated 19 October 2001
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