County: Sligo Site name: SLIGO: Wine Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0283
Author: Georgina Scally
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 569058m, N 836305m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.274611, -8.475068
Archaeological assessment in advance of a proposed development at the Gaiety Cinema site, Wine Street, Sligo, was carried out in late September 1996. The assessment was two-phased: Phase 1 was to be carried out prior to demolition of the cinema, while Phase 2 was to be carried out after demolition. To date, only Phase 1 of the assessment has been completed.
Wine Street is located in the north-west corner of an area of Sligo thought to have been enclosed by town walls in the late seventeenth century. Prior to the seventeenth century Sligo was defended by an earthen rampart of probable thirteenth-century date. However, the line of these early defences is unknown and for this reason the site in question was subject to archaeological assessment as the possibility exists that the line of the later town walls reflected that of the earlier earthen defences.
Ten test-trenches were excavated by mechanical digger and in none were finds or features of archaeological significance uncovered. Phase 2 of the assessment has yet to be completed following the demolition of the present Gaiety Cinema buildings.
c/o 81 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4