2002:1665 - SLIGO: 42–43 High Street, Sligo

A three-storey building occupies Nos 42–43 High Street, Sligo. The site measures less than 7m by less than 20m. The development will retain the full street front, side walls and roof, clear the tangle of ad hoc additions and alterations within and at the back of the building, revitalise the three-storey building and construct a two-storey building at the rear. The back area had several areas of concreting, sometimes in two or three layers.

There is no suggestion of medieval building in this location. In June 2002 demolition and concrete clearance took place over several days. The digging of the foundation trenches for the new north wall and the westward extension of the south wall was monitored. The inner south wall had been built during previous improvements. It was quite clear that below the concrete there was nothing above the underlying, undisturbed, grey and orange subsoil. To facilitate the laying of more consistent floors, the old floor was stripped completely.

There was a modern pipe in a stone-lined culvert on the south side of the back space. At the street frontage there was a similar combination, but both pipe and culvert were larger, the culvert being 0.35m wide. The required groundworks did not reveal these to be parts of the same system. There was an east–west-aligned drain, formed of two lines of red bricks set 0.15m apart, along the north side of the back area. There was a north–south-aligned drain, formed of limestones 0.1m apart, c. 2m from the back of the house. These crossed near the north boundary, with the red-brick drain cutting through the limestone drain. The only surviving internal wall of the street-front building had a foundation of large, round boulders, some c. 0.8m across.
No features of archaeological interest were found.

Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo