2009:734 - TOORLESTRAUN, Sligo

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Sligo Site name: TOORLESTRAUN

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 06E0335

Author: Martin A. Timoney, Bóthar an Corainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.

Site type: Monitoring

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 544500m, N 810226m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.038231, -8.847283

The initial site assessment in 2006 in relation to a proposed development for Toorlestraun GAA pitch revealed a second ringfort conjoined with SL037–062. Testing in 2006 (Excavations 2006, Nos 475–476) confirmed the extent of the second ringfort and this required a new alignment of the proposed access road to the new pitch. Monitoring of the works for the pitch, which took place in 2008, did not reveal any archaeology (Excavations 2008, No. 1080).
Work on the access road had to be abandoned until 2009 due to soil becoming too wet to lay for the playing pitch. The soil-stripping for the access road, the trenching for services and the digging of holes for the boundary fence adjacent to the ringfort were all monitored. Three pieces of burnt sandstone were found near the roadside stream. They were found at three different locations but, while they would seem to be from a burnt spread/fulacht fiadh, no such feature was found within the land-take for the access road and there was no indication of one elsewhere in the area. It is unlikely that they were brought in with fill that had been imported to the site prior to commencement of works. Nothing else of archaeological interest was found during any phase of monitoring.