2007:1534 - Kilkilloge II, Sligo

The pre-planning testing of two fields was required in advance of designing a layout for a small housing estate in two fields at Kilkilloge, Mullaghmore. There is a possible early monastic enclosure to the north, near a T-junction in Kilkilloge on the top of Mullaghmore Head. There are rumours of an extensive souterrain somewhere ‘down the field’ from the T-junction. A local name, ‘Ballintemple’, applies to part of Mullaghmore Head. The first-edition 6-inch OS map shows a clachan of almost 30 buildings here, including a named schoolhouse. The National Library of Ireland Maps of the Sligo Estate, the Property of the Right Honourable Henry John, Lord Viscount Palmerston, Surveyed and Drawn 1813 & 14 by James Williamson, NLI MS.16F17, shows Ballintemple to the north-north-east of the clachan in ‘Kilculloge’. Information from John Leonard, who lived opposite, on NMI file IAD 1966:41, refers to ‘many grave stones found in this place when the road replaced a boreen – one with writing which not even a priest could read’. Several rectangular flat slabs were found to the west of the ruins of a house at the roadside during monitoring of the adjacent development, Kilkilloge I, 06E0599 (Excavations 2006, No. 1777). In light of the rumours of burials these seemed potentials for headstones. However, there is no indication of inscription or decoration on any of them. The former owner informed us that the slabs had been within the dwelling house and he took them out for use under cocks of hay. These may be the type of slabs referred to by Leonard, quoted above.
Testing was furthermore required as there is some unspecified restriction on part of the site as indicated on a 1981 OPW map; the source, location of the original copy or the purpose of this map could not be established. There is no indication on them of any element of a would-be expected ecclesiastical enclosure here or anywhere else on Mullaghmore Head.
Ten trenches were opened with a 2m toothless bucket at the end of January 2007. Three 18m-long by 5m-wide trenches were opened to test the restricted area. Three 2m-wide trenches, lengths 55m, 45m and 43m, were opened to test for the souterrain. Four more trenches, 38m, 58m, 31m and 19.5m, were opened to test the rest of the lands. One proposed trench was not opened, as by then the site was considered to be archaeologically resolved. The soil profile was of a thin root mass over a deep sandy soil over undisturbed natural glacial deposits with many stones in some places. The sand content of this soil is very high and would be very good for tillage. Wood-Martin, the 19th-century Sligo antiquarian, recorded that in the early 19th century there were long periods of storms which carried seashore sands long distances across the coastal landscape. This is the origin of this sand, rather than it being sand imported by man for the betterment of tillage; there were no shells in the soil, something that would be expected if the land had been so manured.
The results of the testing are that there is no indication of burials or of a souterrain, or of any archaeology in any form, in any part of the two fields for this development. The consistent soil sequence in the trenches opened gave no indication of anything other than ploughing of the topsoil over the natural soil.
During the testing we had a number of ‘advisers’ who told us that the entry to the souterrain was within the landscaped lawn of the adjacent ‘A’-frame house property.