County: Sligo Site name: STONEPARKS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0606
Author: Martin A. Timoney, B—thar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 565861m, N 815910m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.091161, -8.521828
This application was for a development of 20 houses and associated works at Stoneparks, Ballymote, Co. Sligo. The site is on the east side of the Ballymote-Sligo road at the north edge of Ballymote. The ground consists of glacial deposits. It was wet, rough, badly drained grazing land and had been partly developed, in that the main access road and some drainage work had been done some years previously.
Three trenches were opened to test this land. A digger with a toothless bucket was used to remove the soil down as far as the undisturbed glacial deposits. Trench 1, 2m wide, was in the area closest to SMR 33:90, a ringfort or enclosure. It was 149m long and varied in depth from 0.2m to 1.7m. Trench 2, which was 3m wide, was 128m long and varied in depth from 0.3m to 1.2m. Trench 3, 2m wide, was 86m long and varied in depth from 0.55m to 1.1m. At the east end of the trench, 10m of a stone-filled drain, 0.7m wide at the top and reaching to 1.16m below the grass level, was encountered. This was filled with angular stones, a maximum of 0.15m across, but there were no finds to date it. It may have been still working as a drain until recent times.
The picture was consistent and there were no indications of archaeology.
