County: Sligo Site name: CARRIGANS LOWER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0333
Author: Martin A. Timoney
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 566315m, N 818811m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.117256, -8.515215
Test excavation was carried out for a dwelling-house and services in April 2001. The area around the proposed house site has few adjacent monuments. There was no surface indication of archaeology in the field. SMR 33:17, described as a cashel, is in the field to the south, at least 40m from the proposed house.
Six trenches were opened, exposing about 230m of 1.5m-wide trench. Natural undisturbed ground was reached at depths of 0.3–0.8m. The underlying deposits are of glacial origin and the limestone bedrock is not far below.
The deepest topsoil was in a short length of Trench F. This topsoil seemed like the backfilled trench for a field wall. Its alignment significantly matched a field boundary down the middle of the field as marked on the 1837 first edition OS map. A furrow, 0.2m wide and 0.06m deep, was in the north end of Trench A. The alignment is as in the above feature. There may be a second, parallel, furrow in the south part of Trench A. The alignment of the furrows and the field-wall trench suggests that they may be contemporary.
The area for the house, garage and access road was subsequently monitored with no further discoveries. Three fragments of modern crockery close to the base of the topsoil and the alignment matching the field boundary on the 1837 OS map suggest that the furrow(s) may be modern.
The monitoring of the sewerage area is to be carried out in March 2002.
Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo
