County: Tipperary Site name: Rathquarter, Sligo
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SL014–065(14) Licence number: 08E0796
Author: Aaron Johnston, for Archaeological Development Services Ltd, 110 Amiens Street, Dublin 1.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 569346m, N 836300m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.274583, -8.470647
At the request of Sligo Borough Council, monitoring was undertaken during excavation groundworks for the construction of a temporary site compound and site access road during the first phase of works in connection with the Forthill Public Park development. The site comprises several playing fields located in Forthill Public Park, in the townland of Rathquarter, just off Connaughton Road on the northern edge of Sligo town. The site is situated on a prominent hill which provided a strategic setting for the star-shaped (Green Fort) bastioned fort constructed in the 17th century and now a National Monument in the ownership of Sligo County Council. The development is located c. 100m to the north-west of the centre of the fort and a 50m zone of exclusion is in effect around the monument.
The site of development was previously subject to a geophysical survey (08R188) by Joanna Leigh and an archaeological impact assessment by Stephen Doyle and Aaron Johnston. Both survey and assessment noted fairly extensive ground disturbance associated around the current playing fields. The only area which seemed not to have been affected by previous landscaping was the zone of exclusion surrounding the fort.
Monitoring and metal detection (08R0233) were undertaken in September 2008 across the area planned for construction of the access road and temporary site compound. No traces of any archaeological features or artefacts were identified.
