County: Sligo Site name: BALLINCAR
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: 04E0538
Author: Martin A. Timoney, Bóthar an Chorainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 567308m, N 838812m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.297032, -8.502204
It is proposed to construct a housing development on the north side of the inner east end of Sligo Bay. The first phase of pre-development testing was reported on in Excavations 2004 (No. 1492); a second phase took place in 2006.
Two parallel trenches were opened running north–south down from the crest of a ridge to close to the water’s edge. There were several finds of modern glass, crockery, etc., in this field, which had been in use as an orchard, at least in the 1950s. Close to the top of the first trench opened a flint blade and a piece of rock crystal were found in disturbed topsoil about 5m apart. The flint blade is either Early Neolithic or Early Mesolithic, the latter being the preferred dating. It is unusual to find rock crystal in this area. A deposit of 39 similar pieces of rock crystal came from an Early Neolithic context at Maugheraboy (Ed Danaher, pers. comm.) on the south side of Sligo city. Because of the importance of these two unassociated finds, further testing or excavation are being considered.
