2002:1669 - SLIGO: Kempton Parade, Sligo

Planning permission was granted to make alterations to the Lough Gill Brewery, to demolish two modern extensions and to construct a new entrance lobby. An assessment was requested. Six trenches tested the area of this late 18th-century brewery building, which is marked on the first-edition OS 6-inch map of 1837. The site is on the north bank of the River Garavogue, within the zone of archaeological potential (SMR 14:65) of Sligo.

There was a concrete floor throughout. In places where the floor was removed, a layer of light grey/light brown, silty clay containing pebbles and decayed stone lay underneath. This clay overlay bedrock, which was very smooth and even on the surface and was exposed at 1.3–1.4m below the present floor of the brewery. There was a very thin layer of black silt on top of the bedrock. This was probably a result of waterlogging immediately above the rock. There was no evidence of deposition caused by river action.

The silty clay produced no finds except a sherd of Bristol–Staffordshire slipware from Trench 5.

The two trenches (5 and 6) dug into the east–west block of the brewery revealed evidence of a brick floor underlying the modern concrete slab. Trench 5 produced evidence of the demolition of an original cross-wall. Trench 4 exposed a wall footing that may have been associated with the demolished building (or buildings) to the north of brewery. Several of the trenches revealed evidence of the dumping of stone and/or modern building rubble.

Archaeological structures were not exposed in any of the trenches. Apart from the sherd of 18th-century slipware, no artefacts were recovered. There was no evidence of riverside activity dating to the medieval or the early modern period.

Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath