County: Sligo Site name: CALTRAGH, Cummeen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0545 ext.
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 566258m, N 836305m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.274434, -8.518047
The results of the site assessment revealed the possibility of an outer enclosing feature around Caltragh. However, it is not by any means certain that this second enclosure is contemporary with the monument. It appears to take the form of a shallow gully that, around the northern side of the enclosure, seems to run along the line of a natural break in slope. On the eastern side, where there are no visible remains of the break, the gully appears to survive. A re-examination of the 1950s aerial photographs of the monument would seem to suggest that the break in the slope/gully was visible, recording the northern and eastern sections of an ovoid enclosure. It is also possible that the same aerial photograph records the southern and western limits of the site surviving at that time. This would have meant an outer oval enclosure surrounding the circular Caltragh monument, measuring 230m east-west by 190m.
It is not possible, without further work, to say whether the large ditch noted to the south-east of the enclosure is archaeologically significant. The presence of a live sewer pipe may indicate that this feature is relatively recent; however, it may equally be an earlier ditch reused for convenience by those who laid the pipe.
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