County: Sligo Site name: 1–2 John Street, Sligo
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: 06E0920
Author: Sinclair Turrell, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Windsor House, 11, Fairview Strand, Dublin 3.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 568788m, N 835809m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.270138, -8.479158
Five test-trenches were excavated at 1–2 John Street, Sligo, where two former houses had been demolished, prior to the development of a retail premises. Several organic-rich deposits, some containing quantities of shell and animal bone, were noted along the northern edge of the site, seeming to form a ditch running east–west, parallel to the street. The date of these deposits was uncertain, although a piece of glass was recovered from one of the upper layers. The rest of the site contained nothing of archaeological interest, the naturally sloping ground having been cut into to provide a flat building plot, with a clay and fine rubble layer put down as a foundation.
Following testing, three trenches were excavated to investigate the deposits along the northern edge of the site. A small east–west-orientated ditch was revealed, together with several large domestic refuse pits, all post-medieval in date. These pits seem to have been filled in and the ground consolidated prior to the construction of the former houses.
