2003:1628 - CARROWMORE, Sligo

The site for a single house near the Carrowmore passage tomb cemetery was tested by three trenches, totalling 276m2. It is 140m north of the Caltragh (SMR 14:267), a presumed Neolithic monument.

Trench A, through the former garden, revealed a rich black garden soil full of modern materials. As is to be expected in any area on the Knocknarea Peninsula, there were some cockle and mussel shells, shellfish being a common food along the Sligo coast from the Neolithic to the present day. These were in a very fragmentary condition and were probably recycled as manure for the garden. Beyond this, the soil was almost completely sterile; a few pieces of modern crockery were encountered. The natural undisturbed gravel of the ridge on which Carrowmore was established was encountered at depths ranging from 0.2 to 0.55m at the north end but at no more than 0.35m out in the open field.

Trench B was 57.4m through the former house and through the percolation area. The north-west end of this trench showed that there was a build-up of modern material here.

Trench C, 40m long, crossed the percolation area. Modern crockery and a fragment of red brick were encountered, as was a single fragmentary oyster shell.

For several metres on either side of the Trench B/Trench C crossing, the covering soil was thinner, with a higher proportion of small stones, up to 0.15m across, in the gravel. This higher level of the underlying gravel may explain the variations in colour in the infrared photo in Burenhult (1984, 96, top).

There was no archaeology revealed in the test-trenches.

Reference
Burenhult, G. 1984 The archaeology of Carrowmore, environmental archaeology and the megalithic tradition at Carrowmore, Co. Sligo, Ireland. Theses and Papers in North European Archaeology, No. 14. Stockholm.

Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo