2004:1540 - SEAFIELD/BREEOGE, Sligo

To the north of the 1967 Ransboro Roman Catholic church is the present national school, of 1981. To the north of the present school was the school residence, built in about 1903. The schoolhouse was in Seafield, with the front lawn in Breeoge. The house was demolished in 1985, and the surrounding ground surface to depths of up to 0.5m, including all that for the proposed sewage system, was totally removed. A replacement sewage system that was to be installed in 2004 required archaeological involvement because of monuments to the rear of where the residence was and including the area to be disturbed. These included: SMR 14:191, Ballybeg, a saucer barrow; 14:192, Ballybeg, an enclosure; 14:193, Ballybeg, a possible enclosure but here considered to be a glacial feature; 14:194, Seafield, a barrow; 14:195, Seafield, an enclosure, but here considered to be a kame or glacial mound of gravel and stones (this was the site of most concern to this development); and 14:196, Seafield, a saucer barrow.

In an article on the earthen barrows or burial mounds of the Knocknarea peninsula (Timoney 1984), all mounds, cairns and the like were considered. SMR 14:195 was rejected, as it has an exposed stone make-up and was regarded as natural kame or a glacial mound of gravel and stones. The north to south-east sector of this was disturbed in the early 20th century when a shed was built into it and several trees were planted on it. It has never been possible to establish the existence of the bank suggested by the depiction on the OS map.

In late May 2004 the required area for the septic tank and pipes was stripped of the weeds and roots and the minimal surviving amount of topsoil that had developed since 1985. There were no indications of archaeology. Testing was then required. Five test-trenches were opened in the glacial deposits on August 11. Trench 1, 1.5m wide and 10m long, revealed gravel and stones and large quantities of archaeologically sterile material. Between 0.05m and 0.2m of gravel was removed. Some thin remnant areas of soil were cleared. Trench 2 was 7m by 4m. This area contained several larger stones, up to 0.25cm across. The testing was cutting 0.35–0.45m into the ground. This area was the site of my father's former house. The concrete foundations of the north wall of the house required greater machine power to remove it. The area was archaeologically sterile. Trenches 3 and 4 were 1.3m wide, 11m and 15m long and 2m apart. Between 0.15m and 0.35m of gravel was removed. Some thin remnant areas of soil were cleared.

In all of these four dug areas there were only remnant patches of soil from the May site work; otherwise the ground was entirely of undisturbed gravel and rocks and in one part of Trench 4 the rubble/concrete fill of the earlier and still in use percolation area was reached but not dug into. Testing proved that all of this area was archaeologically sterile.

Trench 5, 1.4m wide by 21m long, went through a grass strip of built-up ground from the 1970s on the south side of the all-weather pitch. It was dug to a depth of 0.75m, which was sufficient for the proposed pipe. Beneath the sod, 80mm deep, was a fill of soil, builders' rubble, waste glass and plastic. This area was clearly built-up ground from the 1970s. It was archaeologically sterile.

The National Monuments Service has decided that further monitoring is needed; this did not take place in 2004. Due to all these delays, there was a change of person in charge on the Board of Management of the school. The new person did not inform the archaeologist that works were to happen or that they had happened. The required sewage pipe was laid under the modern material of the all-weather pitch and so really would not have required any archaeological involvement. However, the sewage contractor demanded an easy access to the tank from the existing carpark to the west and, without any archaeological presence, cleared a 2m-wide strip along the north edge of SMR 14:195. It is uncertain what depth this was dug into, as it was then filled with gravel. If it is an archaeological monument, then monitoring would have established the presence or otherwise of a bank and ditch and could have settled the question as to whether it is a monument or not.

Reference
Timoney, M.A. 1984 Earthen burial sites on the Carrowmore peninsula, Co. Sligo. In G. Burenhult, The archaeology of Carrowmore, 319–25.

Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo