2001:1168 - GRANGE NORTH, Sligo

The site is on the south-east slopes of Knocknarea Mountain, which dominates the Cuil Iorra peninsula between Sligo Bay and Ballisodare. Planning permission was granted for a house and works in a pasture field on the north side of a secondary road opposite Primrose Grange Castle, the earth-covered wall footings of which seem to form an earthwork. Documentation on the castle is scarce, although it is marked and named on the Down Survey map. Local tradition in the late 1960s was that this area was a farm of Boyle Cistercian abbey.

Recent low-level photographs did not indicate any archaeology in the development site, where bedrock protrudes through the sod in some places. Testing, monitoring and excavation took place between July and October 2001.

Four trenches, 77m, 68m, 35m and 30m long, revealed that the site for the house was free of archaeology, while the area to the front had large shallow spreads of seashells, mainly oyster. Following consultations with all concerned, it was agreed that the applicant would be allowed to proceed with building the house and that the problem of the archaeology vis-à-vis the roadside setback would be addressed later. The front area of the site will be mounded over to preserve the view towards Knocknarea and so will not be disturbed. The roadside wall is being left in place for the present to protect the frontage from construction traffic.

Monitoring of the works area of the house, 50m by 40m, took place, and more and larger extents of seashells were encountered. These were excavated and were 0.04–0.01m in depth. The shells were mainly oyster, but also cockle, periwinkle, clam and mussel. Some bone was discovered in or near the shallow middens. The finds from the site overall include possible post-medieval pottery, glass, metal and clay pipes, all in fragmentary state. Identifiable among the metal finds are a spur, a possible horseshoe, an iron ring and several nails.

One deposit, the Western Midden, proved to be totally different in that it was almost 1m deep and over 3m across. It can be seen that there were concentrations of all the types of shells and proportionately more bones here than elsewhere. Some possible post-medieval pottery should help to date this deposit. Analysis of the deposits is ongoing.

The oyster middens along the south-west Ballisodare Bay shore of the Cuil Iorra peninsula are now internationally known owing to the excavations at Culleenamore by Dr Göran Burenhult in 1980 and 1981. The dating for the coastal middens runs from the Neolithic to the early Iron Age. Inland middens have been shown to be post-early Iron Age, with several at ringforts and related sites. From Dr Burenhult’s excavations and field-walking and surface examination of sites of the Cuil Iorra peninsula by the writer, it seems that the inland shell deposits, again mainly oyster, are associated with post-early Iron Age sites. This Grange North excavation establishes the continuity of this custom possibly down to post-medieval times at least.

The working hypothesis is that these deposits of shells, and the accompanying finds, relate to the castle on the other side of the road. Local information confirms the presence of shell deposits under the road; these were cut through when a water pipeline was put in some years ago.

A compromise situation may be achieved as regards the final arrangement for the new front boundary, inside of which the initial site testing revealed archaeological deposits in the form of spreads of seashells. Further archaeological work may be needed when the roadside setback problem is resolved; this is to take place later.

Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo