County: Sligo Site name: BALLINCAR
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0529
Author: Richard Crumlish, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 567308m, N 838812m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.297032, -8.502204
Monitoring of topsoil-stripping along a 340m stretch of roadway, part of the realignment of the R291, Sligo–Rosses Point road, was carried out on 23 and 24 September 1999. This section of the roadway was c. 3 miles east of Rosses Point, in the townland of Ballincar, Co. Sligo. The topsoil-stripping was confined to the north-east side of the existing roadway.
The area excavated was 340m long and 7-21.3m wide and included an earth-and-stone bank along the existing road boundary. A new junction was also constructed, with a smaller link road exiting from the north-east side of the R291. This involved the realignment of a short section of the link road, 60m long and 2.5–19.5m wide.
The stratigraphy encountered in the areas monitored was natural and undisturbed. No archaeological features or deposits were in evidence. The artefacts recovered from the topsoil were a number of pottery sherds of modern date, modern glass fragments, red brick fragments, two undecorated clay pipe stems, four blackware sherds, two brownware sherds, a glazed sherd dating to the 19th century and a body sherd of possible post-medieval date.
Purcell House, Oranmore, Co. Galway
