County: Sligo Site name: CARTRONMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0213
Author: Richard Crumlish, 61 An Cladrach, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo.
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 568268m, N 843816m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.342054, -8.487991
Monitoring of groundworks, part of the Ben Bulben group water scheme in County Sligo, took place between 24 and 26 May 2004. The groundworks involved the construction of a reservoir and a section of the associated pipeline located within the constraint for a castle (SMR 8:53). The pipeline was located entirely within a third-class road. The reservoir was situated within a fenced-off compound that already contained two small reservoirs, constructed in the last 40 years. The compound was overgrown with grass, alder and ash trees.
The area excavated for the reservoir measured 12m east-west by 11.5m. The ground level was reduced in this area by 0.5-0.95m. The area excavated for the adjacent access road/turning area measured 27m west-north-west/east-south-east by 7-16m, with the ground level reduced by up to 0.5m. Within the reservoir area below the topsoil was blue/grey plastic sandy clay. A burnt spread extended into the east-north-east of the reservoir site for 1.9m and measured 1.5-2.1m wide. It was visible at 20-30mm below the surface and consisted entirely of burnt/heat-shattered stones. On the surface in the access road/turning area was topsoil and modern fill, below which blue/grey plastic sandy clay was visible in places.
The section of pipeline that was monitored measured 50m long, 0.5-0.8m wide and 0.75-1.15m deep. Below the road and road fill was orange/brown friable silt loam and grey/orange/brown firm clay, sterile natural subsoils. A number of modern services were visible within the trench.
Following the discovery of the burnt spread, the reservoir was subsequently moved by 3m to avoid it and, following its recording, the feature was recovered with spoil.
