County: Tipperary Site name: Quay Street Carpark, Rathedmond, Sligo
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E1006
Author: Aaron Johnston, for Archaeological Development Services Ltd (ADS), 110 Amiens Street, Dublin 1.
Site type: Post-medieval culvert
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 569158m, N 835995m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.271832, -8.473501
Monitoring took place, on behalf of Sligo County Council, of a short phase of minor construction groundworks across a narrow rectangular strip of land, measuring c. 60m long and 5m wide, near the centre of Sligo town. Groundworks, which involved topsoil-stripping and excavation of a single drainage pipe trench adjacent to Quay Street carpark, took place over a period of four days during December 2008.
A small stone-built drainage culvert, which measured 5m long, 0.6m wide and 1.3m in depth, was exposed c. 2.5m to the west of the slipway structure leading into the River Garavogue. The culvert, which was orientated roughly north-east to south-west, seemed to be incorporated into the old Quay walls and as such can be dated to either c. 1825, when the Quay walls were constructed, or to c. 1875, when the Quay wall was improved.
The existing modern drainage system, improved during this minor phase of works, incorporated the exposed culvert (which was left in situ) to channel rainwater run-off from the adjacent Quay Street carpark into the Sligo Harbour area.
No archaeological features or artefacts, apart from the small drainage culvert, were exposed during monitoring of groundworks. The old Quay walls and river slipway (a protected structure) along with the existing cast iron mooring piers and surrounding stone foundations were not affected by the groundworks.
