County: Sligo Site name: CASTLEDARGAN/CARRIGEENBOY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0604
Author: Martin A. Timoney, B—thar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.
Site type: Various
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 570896m, N 828828m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.207541, -8.446115
The development in Castledargan and Carrigeenboy townlands is for an eighteen-hole golf course, to retain, extend and refurbish Castledargan House and its outhouses, and to construct housing, apartments and a hotel in a demesne landscape that contains several archaeological monuments. The work is being done in sections.
During monitoring of the stripping of soil from the housing development in Carrigeenboy (1714 3273), a burnt spread, including burnt stone and ash, was noted in an area outside that required for the housing (17154 32744). It was in flat ground south of the current course of a stream and north of a former lakebed, which has soft bog on a layer of white marl on glacial deposits. The burnt material was temporarily covered over with a quantity of mixed topsoil, bottom soil and peat, but its extent may be as much as 65m south-east/north-west by 35m, though it is not certain if this is one continuous spread or the coalescence of a number of spreads.
Several interconnected stone-filled drains and a stone-filled sump were exposed in the soft bog that filled the former lake. Some pieces of red brick indicate a recent date for these, but how recent has not been established. The area had been drained towards the current course of the stream mentioned above.
Small sections of advance work for the golf course in Castledargan (1719 3276) took place in 2004. Thirteen ground-test holes, at most 3m by 5m, were dug by machine on 18 Sept. 2004. A small area was soil-stripped at the former Castledargan level crossing to establish a works compound, and the south-east side of Drumnascoille Hill was ploughed in mid-December. There were no archaeological discoveries in either of these.
