2002:1664 - SLIGO: 5 High Street, Sligo

A wall to the rear of Conway’s Bar, 5 High Street, Sligo, which forms part of the boundary wall between this property and the neighbouring property to the north, was the focus for this assessment. The public house was purchased by the current owner in 1994, and this had been known to be an ancient wall, thought to be the remains of a castle. The owner, keen to develop the property, wished to have the wall examined to determine its age and nature so that any development would not harm or interfere with its fabric should it prove to be historical. An initial inspection of the wall by Dr Colm Donnelly of Queen’s University Belfast was undertaken.

Dr Donnelly concluded that the fabric of the wall, its dimensions and the style of its embrasures suggest a late medieval date for its construction. Although they may have been added as patching in early modern times, the presence of some crude red bricks in the masonry may indicate a slightly later date for the construction of the wall, perhaps in the late 16th or early 17th century. The wall probably belonged to a defensive urban bawn and was possibly constructed to provide protection for the strong house of a merchant in this area of the town. The wall was provided with two lines of defensive embrasures. Both lines faced north, indicating that they were designed to protect whatever existed to the south of the wall. The wall seems to pre-date the reorganisation of the townscape in the late 17th century. It may have been that it was preserved to provide a section of boundary wall in a newly laid-out property plot. Other masonry from demolished sections of the bawn and/or fortified house may have been reused in the construction of neighbouring boundary walls. With the exception of the Dominican friary and masonry foundations discovered during archaeological excavation (R. Ó Baoill, pers. comm.), Sligo is a medieval town bereft of historical buildings. Therefore, the possible identification of a stretch of historical wall in the heart of the old town is a rare and important discovery. The raised level of the beer garden may prove to represent the last section of undisturbed medieval and/or post-medieval layers in the property, as oral history relates that the area in the abandoned garden was lowered in early modern times. This suggests that the entire eastern end of the property was once at a similar level to that of the beer garden. The report recommended a comprehensive programme of architectural recording for this site, which would necessitate the removal of all ivy from the inner wall face in order that all hidden architectural features be identified and recorded. In addition, the accumulated rubbish in the abandoned garden should be removed to enable a more detailed examination of this area and its architecture.

This work was carried out by mechanically excavating a series of small trenches against the inside (south-facing) face of the wall. After the removal of up to 1.5m of modern accumulated rubbish, a small area of in situ floor flags was uncovered, beside which were exposed the remains of the foundation trench associated with the wall. Manual excavation of this feature recovered fragments of pottery and glass that suggested a 17th- or 18th-century date for the construction of the wall. In addition, the excavation revealed the remains of a large double doorway which had a spur stone positioned on its western side, indicating that the door was used by carriages. Further clearance of the ivy and accumulated modern overburden revealed more embrasures along the ground floor, the position and number of which suggested that they were unlikely to be defensive. It is probable, therefore, that the wall is the remains of a warehouse or drying house, the function of which required numerous narrow embrasures, possibly to facilitate air circulation. Further historical investigation is being carried out into this area of Sligo town.

Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ