County: Sligo Site name: Caltragh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 11E0174
Author: Martin A. Timoney
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 568758m, N 835305m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.265610, -8.479569
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. Following the introduction of Free Education, Rev. Dr. Thomas A. Finnegan built Summerhill II in 1968-1969 on large 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 volumes of material from the excavation for that road were brought into the southern part of these lands, causing major changes to the topography. In combination, the landscape here had changed considerably from when the writer was a student there in the early1960s.
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 landscaping phase did not take place until the later part of 2012. The removal of large volumes of redeposited soils was monitored without any archaeological discovery.
Reference:
Danaher, Ed, 2007: Monumental Beginnings, The Archaeology of the N4 Sligo Inner Relief Road, Dublin, NRA.
Bóthar an Corainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.
