1997:482 - SLIGO: Wine Street, Sligo

A second phase of test-trenching was conducted on a large development site once occupied by the Adephi Cinema at Wine Street, Sligo. A large portion had not been available for testing during the Phase 1 investigation carried out by Georgina Scally (Excavations 1996, 98, 96E0283).

The site lies on a natural ridge which rises from the river, to the north, to its highest elevation at the rear of the site at roughly 11.5m OD, from which point it falls quite steeply southwards towards Wine Street at approx. 6.5m OD. Of interest, perhaps, is that the cinema building used the rising ground and its construction did not involve excavation into it. The site on the north of the boundary is now being developed for a major retail complex and massive ground reduction (over 5m) has taken place.

The profile exposed on the excavated (northern) side is a natural one and the ground is composed of very compact boulder clay. Since the wall is a retaining structure and is supporting the ground to the south of it, it would appear that any soils of archaeological potential were removed in a phase of ground reduction associated with its construction many years ago.

One long trench was opened through the cinema footprint, a second trench was opened through the Wine Street side of the adjacent property to the east, and a third trench was opened along the eastern boundary of the site. The results confirm the results of the Phase 1 excavation, namely that no archaeologically sensitive deposits or remains of early buildings occur on the site, except along its northern boundary where redeposited clay may represent the poorly defined remnants of the 17th-century earthen town enclosure.

Trench 1 was at least 40m long and was opened through the cinema footprint as far as the Wine Street frontage. The profile exposed suggested that the cinema building had not substantially altered the natural rising slope in the ground except in the most minor way. At the upper end, a varied but thin (max. 200mm) covering of cultivated earth (i.e. a brown humic clay soil) was seen in places beneath the recently cleared surface. This contained oyster shell, mussel shell, small bone fragments and some very small fragments of red brick, lumps of charcoal rather than a charcoal fleck, and occasional small fragments of cinder. There was very little soil cover throughout the trench and in many places along its length there was no soil cover at all. What residual soil survived was a maximum of 200mm deep.

Towards the Wine Street frontage the thin soil cover, where it existed, was a very dark brown organic clay no more than 150–200mm deep in places. It had very recent inclusions. In this location the area beneath the original street-front building appeared to have been levelled in the past. Only one mortared stone wall was noted in section.

All other structures revealed were composed of mass concrete and where these existed they were disturbed. The masonry wall foundation revealed was located 23.3m back from the Wine Street frontage in a position which reflects the rear of the main block of the adjacent building to the west. It was approximately 600mm wide and was composed of small blocks of mortared limestone, typically 150mm x 120mm x 80mm. The ill-defined remains of a possible second wall foundation were revealed just 3.5m from the Wine Street frontage. Small boulders and blocks of limestone dislodged from the natural subsoil could represent the base of an earthfast and clay-bonded foundation for an east–west wall in this location. The stones were noted in a roughly 1m-wide, disturbed portion of the profile.

Trench 2 was opened on the eastern side of the site on the Wine Street frontage in an area which had not previously been available for testing. The trench was approximately 8m long, excavated to within 1.5m of Wine Street; it was located 7.5m west of the south-east corner of the site. At a distance of approx. 7m back from the street-line the scant remains of a limestone wall were noted (see Trench 3, below) in a very disturbed state. In section it was not possible to determine the precise nature of its construction. It was cut into a loose humic soil and rubble fill deposit which was at most 400mm deep. The rubble incorporated cinders and relatively recent inclusions. The area in which this trench was located was cleared during demolition to a slightly lower level than that in Trench 3.

Trench 3 was located adjacent to and parallel to the eastern boundary of the site (Clarence Hotel side). The front section of the recently demolished building evidently had a timber floor, much of which appears to have rotted prior to demolition. At the northern end of the trench (i.e. outside the street-front building) the back wall of the building was located (and crossed). It was 600mm wide. Behind it the recent concrete floor-slab of the building to the rear had been cut into the naturally rising ground and it lay directly on sterile boulder clay.

To test the notion that the redeposited clay revealed in Trenches 1 and 3 of Scally’s Phase I assessment might be the vestiges of the 17th-century earthen banked enclosure around this portion of the town, Trench 3 of this investigation was opened to the west of her Trench 1. This measured just 3m long and it could not reach the boundary wall for safety reasons (because of the huge unprotected drop into the adjacent site). However, the section exposed supports the interpretation that the remains of a possibly levelled bank could be represented along this alignment.

No archaeological structures or deposits of any archaeological potential were encountered across the remainder of the site. Curiously, perhaps, the Wine Street frontage has produced no evidence for anything other than its most recent, and now demolished, phase of building development. On the basis of the examination of the standing eastern side-wall of the building demolished on the eastern side of the street front, the building is 18th-century in date. It is a limestone structure of quite elegant construction (cut quoins and other cut stone features) with hand-made yellow-brick inserts for the fireplace/chimney and for the arches over window opes.

There were no further archaeological requirements for this site in advance of development. The presence of the redeposited soils at the northern end of the site near its boundary wall could not be proven to be derived from a 17th-century bank, though this writer still suspects that this may be the case and it should provide an argument for further investigation of the property boundaries along this alignment. Accordingly the reduction in ground level to the rear of the Clarence Hotel was examined as an extension to this licence, but no trace of accumulated soils which could have had this derivation were noted.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin