County: Sligo Site name: Carrowntemple
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0241
Author: Martin A. Timoney, Bóthar an Corainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 562251m, N 802109m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.966896, -8.575299
The proposed house site is in Carrowntemple, Gurteen, Co. Sligo. The field is 180m west of the ruinous medieval church of Carrowntemple and between 30m and 60m west of the line of the Early Christian monastic enclosure SL044–056.
A licence was granted for a programme of testing by way of six trenches. The trenches, 59m, 47m, 38m, 28m, 56m and 12m, were opened using an excavator with a 2m-wide toothless bucket as deep as the undisturbed natural which was reached at between 0.4m and 0.55m with the topsoil being 0.15m deep. The soil was rich brown with the lower parts containing many stones. Several rocks up to 0.8m across were encountered. In the event, hand tools were not used. None of these trenches revealed any archaeological features.
Two metres from the southern ends of two trenches a grey soil, as opposed to the brown elsewhere throughout the site, showed for lengths of about 6m. This was dug into and the grey was no more than 0.1m deep. Its content was the same as that of the brown soil. It was naturally deposited. The explanation may be occasional waterlogging at that lowest part of the field from an adjacent drain.
