County: Sligo Site name: OAKFIELD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 14:218 Licence number: 01E0253
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS
Site type: Quarry and Road - road/trackway
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 567658m, N 834105m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.254761, -8.496320
The proposed IDA development site is approximately 3km to the south-west of Sligo town and straddles the administrative areas of Sligo Corporation and Sligo County Council. It is situated between the Oakfield Road and the Dublin to Sligo railway line in an area dominated by agricultural land use despite its proximity to the centre of Sligo town. The site is irregular in shape and is constrained by the present field boundaries in the area. There is a monument within the boundaries which was recognised from aerial photographs and is assumed to be an earthwork feature or a series of features.
The testing concentrated on the AP site, the main portion of which was located along the ridge towards the southern end of the field. The testing of this area proved it to consist of a natural gravel ridge which had, in the 18th century, been subjected to localised quarrying. The material was drawn away along a series of trackways which were constructed by bedding small rounded and subangular stones into the soil. One of the tracks uncovered during the testing ran through the quarry area towards Oakfield House.
A small 20m by 10m rectangular enclosure was also uncovered, positioned in such a way between the quarry pits and trackways as to suggest that they were probably contemporary. Nothing was uncovered to suggest a function for this feature; however, a number of potsherds confirmed an 18th-century date for the remains of some possible occupation soils found in the interior.
The remainder of the trenches uncovered evidence for gullies and drains, some or all of which could account for the cropmarks noted on the APs.
Finally, a series of small, dispersed features were uncovered in the test-trenches at the northern end of the site. These consisted of a mixture of pits and small gullies and, while of limited significance in themselves, point to the presence of other archaeological remains which are almost certainly scattered across the proposed development area.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
