County: Sligo Site name: BALLISADARE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 20:267 and 20:268 Licence number: 03E1849
Author: Christopher Read, North West Archaeological Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 566795m, N 829365m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.212116, -8.509037
The proposed development, to consist of 105 dwelling-houses, twenty apartments, fifteen retail units, landscaping, access roads and related services, is located on the edge of Ballisadare village, Co. Sligo, and is bounded by the Owenmore River to the south. It is in the zone of archaeological potential for a ford and bridge (site of). No traces of these sites were revealed during the initial impact assessment.
A small portion of the site was topsoil-stripped to expose bedrock that will need to be reduced before the development can commence. The remainder of the development was extensively tested through the excavation of fourteen trenches across the site. Topsoil-stripping revealed sod and rich brown friable clay to a depth of 0.2–0.3m. This rested directly on top of the bedrock. The trenches measured 6m by 140m, 4m by 100m and 4m by 50m in length. All were excavated to a width of 0.7–0.8m and a depth of 0.1–0.95m. All of the trenches excavated in the northern and western portions of the site encountered bedrock at a depth of 0.1–0.4m. In the remaining trenches the bedrock was at a depth of 0.5–0.95m below the existing surface. In these trenches, the same context as above was up to 0.5m deep and rested in places atop a lighter, more compact, brown clay with small stones. This deposit ranged in depth from 0.1 to 0.5m and rested directly atop the bedrock. There was no evidence of archaeological activity in any of these trenches. Likewise, the topsoil-stripping revealed no archaeological features or deposits.
Cloonfad Cottage, Cloonfad, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim
