2000:0902 - SLIGO: Connaughton Road, Sligo

Sligo Corporation proposes to build social housing on a site on Connaughton Road on the north-eastern side of the town. The site is c. 40m west of the ‘Green Fort’, a 17th-century, star-shaped fort. The projected line of the town defences, erected by Jacobite forces in the autumn of 1689, extends across the northern part of the site. Historical evidence suggested that these defences were earthen banks.

Five test-trenches were excavated by a tracked excavator with a 4ft-wide toothless bucket (the archaeological features identified were hand-excavated). Test-trenches 1, 2 and 3 were situated within the line of the defences; nothing of archaeological significance was found, confirming the historical and cartographic evidence that this part of the town has been agricultural land up to the present.

Test-trenches 4 and 5 were excavated across the projected line of the defences. Test-trench 4 was excavated through a gateway in an existing field boundary, 90m west of the ‘Green Fort’. The truncated remains of a ditch were found to the north of (i.e. outside) the projected line of the defences; a slight step was found cut into natural 2.4m south of the ditch. Test-trench 5 was excavated across the projected line of the defences (60m south of Test-trench 4); there was no above-ground indication of the presence of any archaeological remains. A flat-bottomed ditch (2.94m wide, 0.74m deep) was found north of (i.e. outside) the projected line of the defences; a stepped cut was found 2m south of the ditch. The pottery found in the fill of these features suggests that they were backfilled in the 18th and 19th centuries.

These physical remains, in association with the cartographic and documentary evidence, suggest that the 1689 town defences extend across the northern part of the site.

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