2004:1525 - KILBOGLASHY, Sligo

Testing in October 2004 in the vicinity of a graveyard was part of an overall assessment in the townlands of Kilboglashy and Abbeytown connected with developments by Harrington Concrete (Sligo) Ltd at the Abbeytown quarry on the western side of the village of Ballysadare. Details of related testing at other sites can be found elsewhere in this volume: Kilboglashy, SMR 20:109(06) (No. 1526, Excavations 2004, 04E1471); Kilboglashy, 20:109(07) (No. 1527, Excavations 2004, 04E1472); Abbeytown, 20:158 (No. 1486, Excavations 2004, 04E1468); and Abbeytown, 20:159 (No. 1487, Excavations 2004, 04E1469).

The line of a recently constructed pathway emanating from the eastern side of the Abbeytown quarry skirts the north-eastern quadrant of the enclosure and heads towards the ruins of St Fechin's Church (SMR 20:109(01)) on a north-west to southeast axis, then turns abruptly to the south-west and terminates parallel to the north-west boundary wall of graveyard 20:109(02). Testing was required along the last leg of the path, adjacent to the graveyard. This took the form of two 30m-long strip trenches, one on either side of the path adjacent to the graveyard. The topsoil was mechanically excavated by a tracked mini-digger fitted with a 1.4m-wide flat-edged ditching bucket.

Cutting 1 was located along the eastern side of the pathway. Because a concrete-post fence had been constructed on the western side of the pathway, Cutting 2 was located in the adjoining pasture field, between 0.75m and 1.4m from the fence line to avoid destabilising the posts. The two cuttings were 4.4m apart at the south-western end, becoming divergent to the north-east. The pathway was c. 3.5m wide. The graveyard wall had no footings and stood to a height of c. 1.25m. Cutting 1 was aligned north-east to south-west, following a line between the pathway and the graveyard wall, commencing c. 3m short of the south-west end of the wall. It measured 30m long by 1.4m wide by 0.4-0.9m deep. The topsoil was rooty, organic grey-brown clay. Towards the northeastern end of the cutting the topsoil was relatively stony, containing many medium to large limestone blocks. The underlying subsoil was grey silty clay containing fine gravel as well as mixed medium-large limestones. Most of the large limestones protruded at the north-eastern end of the cutting, where there were also patches of orange boulder clay. Several small concentrations of animal-bone fragments associated with shells were encountered along the length of the cutting. No other archaeological deposits were discovered in the cutting and there were no artefacts.

Cutting 2 was aligned north-west to south-east, and measured 30m long by 1.4m wide by up to 0.6m deep. The topsoil was dark-grey/brown clay, in general less stony than on the eastern side of the pathway. The subsoil was pale-grey/brown silty clay containing gravel and some large slabs of limestone. Three concentrations of bone and shell material were discovered in the cutting towards the north-eastern end. The remains of a wall aligned north-south were exposed along the western section of the cutting, located 23.7m from the south-western end. The wall was made of large randomly coursed mortared limestone blocks. The exposed length was 1.53m (north-south), with a surviving height of 0.5m. There was a concentration of heavily mortared limestone rubble mixed with the topsoil adjacent to the wall, continuing another 1.6m to the north-east, and another concentration of mortared limestones 2.5m south-west of the wall. When investigated, an in situ flat limestone slab was exposed, which appeared to be part of the flooring of a building, measuring 0.54m long (north-south) by 0.3m wide by 0.1m deep. There were no other deposits or features in the cutting and no artefacts.

Testing evidence suggests that the construction of the pathway had little or no impact on the scatters of midden material, as the bone and shell remains were consistently encountered at depths below the base level of the limestone chippings that formed the pathway itself. However, the construction of the concrete fence along the western side of the pathway would have involved the digging of sockets at regular intervals to retain the fence posts and this activity would probably have disturbed some animal bone and shell deposits. No artefacts were found in association with the animal bone and shell scatters and it is not possible to state how old the material is or from where it derives. The limestone building evidence encountered in Cutting 2 is some distance from the edge of the pathway and structural remains of this type may not have been encountered during the construction of the pathway and the western fence line. No building is marked in this location on the 1837 or 1910 editions of the OS map, so the structure must have been demolished before 1837. It may possibly be the remains of a farm building dating from the 18th or early 19th century.

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