County: Sligo Site name: SLIGO: Kempton Parade, Bridge Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0487
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Industrial site
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 569358m, N 836005m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.271934, -8.470433
Nothing of archaeological significance is known from the site on Kempton Parade. However, the Urban Archaeological Survey for Sligo shows that the site is within the projected town walls of c. 1689. It is bounded to the north by the plots associated with the south side of Stephen's Street, and to the west by the line of Bridge Street. While it is impossible to be certain, it is likely that the area of the town now occupied by the site was in the intertidal zone of the River Garvoge.
Evidence from archaeological work on Rockwood Parade and Stephen's Street carpark suggested that both sides of the river had large intertidal zones before the walling of the river, presumably in the 18th century. Indeed, on the south side of the river the zone extended at least halfway up the present line of Watery Lane and Tobergal Lane. It is likely that a similar situation prevailed in the area of Kempton Promenade. Plots associated with the south side of Stephen's Street probably extended from the rear of the buildings down to the high-tide mark; thereafter the ground was subject to regular flooding and useful only for transitory activities.
Three trenches were opened to assess the nature, extent, complexity and date of any surviving archaeological deposits. The results revealed that there was on average over 1.8m of modern overburden on the site, beneath which were the remains of a relatively recent skeletal A-horizon, up to 0.3m deep. Below this was a further 1.7m of yellow/brown clay overlying a smooth, shaley bedrock (2.8m OD), which sloped quite steeply downwards from the north-west corner of the site.
It would appear that, like the areas tested on the south bank of the Garvoge River, this area was largely unoccupied in the past, presumably used simply as access to the river from the rear of the plots on The Mall. The archaeology uncovered would all appear to date from the later history of Sligo, when the area was used for industrial purposes.
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