County: Sligo Site name: CALTRAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 11E0174
Author: Martin A. Timoney
Site type: Possible earthwork
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 568758m, N 835305m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.265493, -8.478889
Summerhill College, the boys’ secondary school for Sligo and the Elphin Diocesan Seminary, was opened in 1892 and extended on the same site in 1950. After the introduction of free education, Revd Dr Thomas A. Finnegan built Summerhill II in 1968–9 on playing fields across the road to the south of the old buildings. The Sligo Inner Relief Road was built immediately to the west of Summerhill II between 2000 and 2005 (Danaher 2007). Considerable quantities of material from the excavation for that road were brought into the southern part of these lands, causing major changes to the topography. Planning permission was granted in 2009 for a completely new building, Summerhill III, on the site of Summerhill II; this involved the complete removal of Summerhill II. The Planning Permission included a monitoring requirement.
While the ground level had been altered considerably by digging out for some of Summerhill II, as some of the structure was cut in by a storey in depth, there was a large paved central area to the main block where intact ground may have survived. The initial site works to the south of the Summerhill II buildings were monitored at Easter 2011; there was no indication of anything of archaeological interest.
From examination of 1950s Air Corps aerial photos (V.203, 45-46-47) it was suspected that a small part of the southern circuit of a small ploughed-out earthwork may have survived within the open courtyard.
A licence to test any potentially intact area was obtained as soon as Leaving Cert 2011 was completed and works began again. Five trenches were opened to the south of Summerhill II but, while patches of original soil profile were discovered, none produced any archaeological information. Likewise, the two trenches within the courtyard produced no material of archaeological interest. Construction work on Summerhill III continues. The landscaping phase is due after Leaving Cert 2012 has ended and will require monitoring.
Reference
Danaher, E. 2007 Monumental beginnings: the archaeology of the N4 Sligo Inner Relief Road. Dublin.
Bóthar an Corainn, Keash, Co. Sligo
