County: Leitrim Site name: CARRICK-ON-SHANNON: Priest’s Lane, Townparks
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 31:5 Licence number: 01E0409
Author: Martin A. Timoney
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 593870m, N 799880m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.948206, -8.093369
The older part of Carrick-on-Shannon is on a drumlin at a bend in the River Shannon. The field for this development of two apartment blocks is on the north edge of this drumlin. Other parts of Carrick-on-Shannon are on other drumlins, with the intervening ground being low and unused for settlement, at least until recently. Being immediately outside the graveyard around St George’s Church of Ireland church, there was the possibility of burials here even though the field is about 2m below the level of the graveyard. Test excavations by the writer in 1997 (Excavations 1997, No. 317, 97E0253) at a site just off Priest’s Lane, 50m south of the current site, revealed deep garden soil with much rubbish, but no archaeology.
Current testing was carried out in summer 2001. The steeply sloping field measures 65m by 50m and slopes almost 10m across its north–south diagonal. It is to be terraced for the development.
Four trenches, 1.5m wide, were opened, to a total length of 197m. The soil profile was consistent throughout the site, except for variations in depth, with a dark brown organic soil overlying an orange daub. The dark brown organic layer was deepest at the flat, highest area of the site and also where the long trenches reached the road frontage along Priest’s Lane. At the highest area a deep cut was made into the daub and this showed that at 0.85m below the surface there is a wet sticky grey soil.
Not one single archaeological find was made. The soil under 0.1m below the surface was totally sterile. There was plenty of modern rubbish on the surface, some of it embedded in the top 0.1m.
Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo
