County: Sligo Site name: SLIGO ABBEY, Abbey Street, Sligo
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0471 ext.
Author: Donald Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Graveyard
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 569365m, N 835864m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.270668, -8.470311
Archaeological monitoring of excavations for a proposed new access gate to the grounds of Sligo Abbey, a National Monument in state care, was carried out on 15 May 2000. The recent construction of a visitor centre involved the blocking up of an access gateway from Abbey Street along the west end of the site and the construction of a new entrance at the south-east corner. Excavations carried out in advance of the construction of the new visitor centre exposed a 17th/18th-century cobbled yard and house, together with a ditch, which provided a date of 1216–66 (Excavations 1999, 280–1).
The construction of the new gate involved the part-demolition of the existing wall along Abbey Street and the excavation of up to 1m of material from inside the wall to allow a ramp to be constructed into the grounds from the Abbey Street level, which is almost 1m below the ground level within the abbey grounds.
An area measuring 9m (max.) by 10m (max.) was excavated by a mini-digger. At the boundary wall 1m of material was removed, but this sloped gradually upwards to the north until an acceptable gradient was achieved. The material removed consisted entirely of redeposited brown clay and stone with frequent inclusions of disarticulated human bone. The origin of this material was likely to have been from within the church or abbey grounds. No intact archaeological stratigraphy was exposed, and no finds, other than the human bone, were recovered. The excavated material was used to level another part of the site.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
