2007:1540 - Rathcarrick and Grange North (Knocknarae), Sligo

Testing took place of a sample of suspected archaeological features identified on two compartments of forested Coillte Teoranta land at Rathcarrick and Grange North, Co. Sligo, in August 2007. The area in question is situated on the eastern slopes of Knocknarea Mountain on the western end of the Cúil Irra peninsula in Co. Sligo and is located c. 1km to the east of Míosgán Meadhbha (archaeological complex, SL014–076) and c. 2.5km to the west of the Carrowmore megalithic cemetery (archaeological complex, SL014–209). There is a possible passage tomb (SL014–088) in Grange North townland, adjacent to the areas investigated.
Fieldwork by Dr Stefan Bergh (NUI Galway) and others revealed evidence of extensive chert extraction c. 400m to the west of the area investigated and an extensive distribution of worked chert artefacts was recovered from the land surface all along the slopes of the mountain. Further possible standing monuments were identified during fieldwork in the general area and include a possible megalith, a displaced standing stone and a possible stone row (Hammar and Bergh 2006, 12, fig. 4). During this work several ‘scoop’ features were identified and it was speculated that these may have been prehistoric in origin and related to settlement rather than industrial activities. In early 2007 the area under discussion was systematically surveyed by Emmet Byrnes of the Forest Service in order to fully quantify and record the locations of the ‘scoop’ features; 77 of these were identified. The form of the features ranged from slight scarps or steps cut into the natural hill slope to more clearly formed oval or circular depressions that ranged from c. 3m to c. 12m in length and up to c. 1.2m in depth.
Nine features were selected for testing. Each was examined by excavating by hand a centrally placed 1m by 1m test-pit to examine the stratigraphy and to test for the presence of artefactual material. Each pit was dug either to undisturbed subsoil or to bedrock. The spoil excavated from each of the test-pits was passed through a 5mm mesh riddle to ensure retrieval of all lithic material.
In all cases a similar profile was revealed: the sod layer gave way to a loosely compacted dark humic layer. These layers tended to give way to either a compact gravel layer in a matrix of grey compact silty material or a layer of grey silty material overlying a fine compact gravel layer. These layers were observed in a number of cases to rest directly on top of bedrock. No artefactual material was encountered in spite of all spoil being passed through a riddle, nor were any marks indicative of quarrying/extractive processes visible on exposed bedrock surfaces. No other evidence of archaeological significance was encountered in any of the test-pits.
Reference
Hammar, D. and Bergh, S. 2006 Forestry Field-walking Survey, Rathcarrick townland, Knocknarea, Co. Sligo. Unpublished report for Coillte Teoranta.