2007:1543 - Shannon Eighter, Sligo

Further testing was carried out on 12–14 February 2007 at a site in Shannon Eighter townland, Co. Sligo. The original testing, carried out in August 2006 (Excavations 2006, No. 1785), was necessary because the potential development site was partially located within the archaeological constraint for a cemetery and ash dump, discovered during road widening of the main Sligo–Bundoran road (which ran along the western site boundary) in 1969. This second phase of testing was the main recommendation following the original testing of the site. Specifically three features uncovered in the south-west corner of the site were to be further investigated. The features were a silt loam deposit, a ditch and a possible ditch. The proposed development site, situated in a large field of pasture, was to be the subject of a planning application for development in the future.
Testing consisted of the excavation (by machine) of four trenches which measured 15.4m, 14.8m, 11.7m and 10.2m long respectively, 1.2–2.3m wide and 0.3–1.5m deep. Two of the trenches produced evidence of the ditch, which measured 2.1–3.6m wide. Two small animal-bone fragments and occasional mussel-shell fragments were recovered from the ditch fill. Another trench produced evidence of a small-scale quarry in the form of fill which consisted of quarried stone and redeposited topsoil and subsoil and which contained animal bone, two sherds of blackware and two unglazed pottery sherds. The topsoil in three of the trenches contained modern pottery sherds, one red-brick fragment, one unworked flint, a modern tile fragment, one clay-pipe stem and animal-bone fragments. One of the subsoils contained a small amount of animal (cattle) bone.
The only animal identified in the bone assemblage was Bos taurus (cattle). Eight of the bone fragments had traces of gnawing. Three fragments had cut marks, indicating they had been butchered, and one fragment indicated it had been crushed while the bone was ‘fresh’. A number of sherds of blackware, brownware and one sherd of unglazed earthenware were recovered, dating to between the late 18th and early 20th centuries.
The ditch uncovered in two of the trenches appeared to be part of the same feature uncovered during the first phase of testing at this site. It appeared to be either rectangular or square in plan, with its southern and eastern side revealed during the two phases of testing. Its northern and western sides may well be outside the proposed development site and may have been destroyed during construction of the adjacent Bundoran–Sligo road (N15). The feature measured c. 30m north–south (slightly north-north-west/south-south-east) before disappearing in the trench to the north, which contained evidence of small-scale quarrying.
Unfortunately we did not have an exact location for the archaeological material uncovered during road-widening works on the nearby road in 1969, nor did we recover any datable material from the feature; however, it appears to be of archaeological significance. It is located in a prominent location and a number of burials and an ash-pit/hearth have been discovered nearby. Its rectangular shape, dimensions and the dimensions of the enclosing ditch would most closely resemble a moated site.