County: Sligo Site name: BALLYSADARE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0020
Author: Hilary Opie
Site type: Burial ground
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 567258m, N 829006m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.208921, -8.501901
Excavations, funded by Sligo County Council, took place between 8 July and 6 September 1996, prior to development of the Ballysadare-Collooney Road Bypass. The site first came to attention during machine clearance of the area between the road batter edge and the fenceline. This clearance exposed human skeletal remains.
The site lay approximately 10–15m west of a burial-ground excavated in January/February 1995 by the same project team, managed by John Channing (Excavations 1995, 77). At first it was assumed that these burials were part of the same burial mound. However, upon ground inspection and subsequent excavation, it became clear that the two sites were contained within their own, separate mounds.
Remains of at least 83 burials were recovered. In addition, 28 bone scatters representing disturbed burials were collected. The true figure, therefore, is likely to have been much higher than 83. Furthermore, only half the burial mound was excavated as the rest lay in a field off the road-take.
All the burials appear to have been extended inhumations in a supine position. All were aligned roughly east-west with the head to the west, except for one individual who was buried with the head to the east. This may have been a priest. Most were confined to the roughly oval mound, which utilised a naturally occurring gravel ridge. A number of burials lay to the south and off the mound itself These may have been deliberately excluded from burial on the mound or may have been later burials not directly associated with this earlier tradition.
Most graves consisted of simple, shallow cuts into the gravel which would have been too constricted to carry a coffin. There were also two well-constructed stone-lined lintel graves. One of these contained a single skeleton. The other contained two burials, one of which was clearly later, as it had disturbed and partially cutaway the earlier burial.
The nature of the burial practice and the east-west orientation may suggest that the burial-ground was Early Christian in date. Close similarities with other Early Christian cemeteries in Ireland were also noted, in particular the stone-lined lintel graves. There was also a strong Early Christian tradition and presence in this area which may support this theory. Finally, in the unexcavated field containing the remainder of the burial-ground, a large, granite bullaun stone was found.
16 Ormond Sq., Dublin 7
