2004:1523 - CHURCHMEADOWS, CARROWHUBBUCK SOUTH, INISHCRONE, Sligo

This was a development for two buildings on ground immediately adjoining an enclosure barrow. The greater part of the barrow is within the rear of an adjacent plot developed by a neighbour (Excavations 1999, No. 790, 99E0412). The site was tested by four trenches in January 2004. A small digger and later a JCB were used for soil moving following on from the testing. The chassis of the mobile home on the site was so rusted that it had separated from the body and was stuck in a position which made it possible to dig only part of one of the main trenches.

Trench 1, 8m long and 3m wide, was opened in the south-east corner of the site. This was in a former 'lawn' area, which was 0.5-0.7m below the main part of the site. There was 0.1m of sod, 0.35m of dark-brown sandy soil with modern rubbish and 0.35m of daub soil on the broken surface of the bedrock, described by the locals as 'shale'.

Trench 2 was taken from the edge of the barrow at the south-east and running back a distance of 22m. It was only 1.2m wide initially, due to the small digger. Later the JCB was used to widen this trench to 4.3m for 8m close to the monument and then the small machine was used to progressively lower the level down to the bedrock. The soil sequence in this trench was 0.2m of sod, 0.55m of dark-brown sandy soil with modern rubbish, 0.35m of brown soil with modern rubbish, and 0.35m of yellow sand on the broken surface of the bedrock. Modern finds and a few seashells were encountered down as far as 0.95m. About 2.5m out from the monument, several angular stones were encountered in the otherwise sandy soil. Within and under these were several pieces of crockery, sheet glass, some shells and a large slice of a 19th-century bottle, clearly indicating that this was a modern dump of material and stones and not an archaeological feature. Two animal bones were found, but this was not unexpected, as a Mr Beglin had a butcher shop on the adjacent plot to the west; Mr Beglin is reputed to have buried many bones both around and in the barrow. The colour of the soil progressively brightened as we went down, due to less organic material having been added to the sandy underlying deposits, and the bottom layer showed little sign of disturbance at all.

Trench 3 was also taken close to the barrow at the south. Due to the obstruction of the mobile home, this was only 7m long by 5m wide. Bedrock was reached after a soil sequence similar to that in Trench 2. This confirmed that this ground was severely disturbed, to a depth of at least 0.8m, by gardening activity. The soil sequence in this trench outside of the barrow was 0.2m of sod and 0.77m of grey brown soil, getting sandier further down, with modern rubbish down to 0.7m, 0.3m of golden yellow sand, then 0.4m of daub soil on the broken surface of the bedrock. Modern finds were encountered as far down as 0.7cm.

Trench 4, 5m long by 1.2m wide, was opened in the south-west corner of the site across the present access. The surface level here was lower than that in Trenches 2 and 3, so the sand was reached much sooner. The ground was clearly disturbed down to a depth of 0.55m, where the blown sea sand was encountered; there was 0.15m of sod, 0.4m of dark-brown sandy soil with modern rubbish on blown sea sand, the bottom of which was not reached. It was intended that this trench would continue to Trench 1, but it could not be extended any further due to the mobile home.

Even though two of the trenches were immediately outside of the enclosure barrow, there was no sign in the soil profile of anything archaeological associated with the barrow. All the soil that was dug was recently disturbed and a considerable proportion of it, except for the blown sea sand above the bedrock, may have been brought in.

The soil-stripping for the required groundworks was monitored, under an extension of the licence. At this stage the topsoil and the sand were removed by machine with a toothless bucket and piled on the site. Foundation trenches were dug by a narrower bucket. There were no archaeological discoveries.