County: Sligo Site name: 11 MARKET STREET, ABBEYQUARTER SOUTH, SLIGO
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E1013
Author: Martin A. Timoney, Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.
Site type: 18th-century urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 569182m, N 835768m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.269794, -8.473110
This application was for alterations and a rear extension to a house and associated works at No. 11 Market Street, Sligo, which took place in June 2005. Market Street was the main medieval street of Sligo.
A small sherd of possible medieval pottery was found towards the rear of the plot in disturbed ground. There were two purlins from a ship’s mast; Nos 12 and 13 are known to have similar timbers. Squared ship’s timbers, 1.18m by 0.25m by 0.15m and 1.5m by 0.25m by 0.15m, were found in the make-up of the back and front walls. The intact narrow wall between Nos 11 and 12, and presumably also between Nos 12 and 13, is of timber beam construction infilled with brick. A chamfered piece of sandstone, 0.4m by 0.4m by 0.23m, was found under the doorstep. In the soil under the building were occasional pieces of glass, red brick, oyster and cockleshells and a few bones.
A large part of the front-room floor was of 1.5in-thick bricks. Under this there were up to thirty broken wine bottles. These were found in the soil inside the front wall and continuing along the north wall as far back as the fireplace. A single coin turned up close to the end of the bottles under the fireplace. It was identified by Michael Kenny, NMI, as: ‘Halfpenny, Irish, George II. This coin is very worn but the “young head” of George II can be identified and part of the legend GEORGIVS, giving the piece a date-range of 1747–1755. In the earlier part of the reign, the king’s name is spelled GEORGIUS.’
These tantalising scraps of information may suggest a date in the mid-18th century for the building.
