County: Sligo Site name: EASKY: Shannonspark West and Curraghnagap
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 11:21, 11:18 Licence number: 03E0670
Author: Martin A. Timoney
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 537411m, N 838126m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.288085, -8.961283
Planning permission was granted for townhouses and associated works at Shannonspark West on a 5.5-acre site between Easky Abbey, SMR 11:21, and a ringfort, SMR 11:18. Testing was required. Site preparation works (soil-stripping of about 80% of the area) began before archaeological involvement. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted in later walking of the site.
The houses were tested by seven 2m-wide trenches, 48.6–158m long. Nothing of archaeological interest was found. Bedrock was just under the current surface and a thin layer of glacial deposits covered the rock.
Breraton estate maps of Easky show a corn mill at the sloping south-east corner of the development, nothing of which survives above ground. In this area, about 1.5–2m depth of soil, with a wide variety of modern materials, was removed for the sewage unit. Quantities of cockle and periwinkle shells were found, tucked in against the natural stepping of the bedrock; modern glass and crockery was associated with the shells. The eating of shellfish along the Sligo coast has a long history, continuing down to the present day.
Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo
