2008:302 - Market Place and Main Street, Ballyshannon, Donegal

Monitoring was undertaken of groundworks associated with the Ballyshannon Sewerage Scheme, Co. Donegal. Work was carried out from June until November 2007 across Carrickboy, Townparks, Abbey Island and Abbeylands townlands in the Ballyshannon hinterland (Excavations 2007, No. 345). Monitoring of additional works was carried out in Main Street, Ballyshannon, in May 2008 and finally a section adjacent to the old army barracks was monitored in October 2008. A desk-based impact assessment by David Sweetman in 2003 was undertaken in advance of the development. This study selected areas of archaeological potential where monitoring was deemed appropriate.
No archaeological features or remains were noted while monitoring topsoil-stripping outside the immediate environs of Ballyshannon town. However, in Abbey Island townland, to the north-west of Ballyshannon, a roughly rectangular stone masonry block was recorded at the side of the pipe trench and left in situ. This well-faced stone block, possibly a door jamb, may have originated from the adjacent medieval Assaroe Abbey.
On the northern bank of the River Erne, adjacent to the bus station in Market Place (Yard) on the eastern side of Main Street, a series of substantial subsurface masonry foundation walls were exposed at various locations, c. 0.2–1.4m below the tarmac surface during excavations for the sewer pipe trench in November 2007. The wall foundations were built directly onto the underlying limestone bedrock and measured a maximum height 1.4m and width of c. 1.2m. The walls are likely to be the foundations of a large 18th/19th-century cavalry barracks (demolished in late 19th century), which included a parade ground and ancillary structures, such as a large stabling area. There is also a possibility that several of the walls exposed on the barracks site in Market Yard were either foundations from the O’Donnell’s Castle, built in 1423 and demolished in the early 17th century, or more likely Lord Folliott’s castle, built on the same site and later demolished in 1720 to make way for the construction of the barracks.
A well-preserved arched culvert, c. 5m wide and 2.5m in height, was exposed near the south-east corner of the extant old infantry barracks on the western side of Main Street, while monitoring the final section of sewerage pipeline in October 2008. The masonry used to construct the arch was a combination of rectangular limestone blocks, bonded with a whitish, very compact, cement-like lime mortar. The arched culvert may be of contemporary construction date with the adjacent Infantry Barracks (1700) as the structure seemed to be part of the overall barracks wall foundations. The culvert was orientated roughly north to south, running parallel with Main Street, possibly suggesting a drainage/sewerage function.