County: Sligo Site name: Oyster Island
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 12E255
Author: Chris Read
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 566822m, N 839264m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.301057, -8.509727
In 2010, a previously unrecorded enclosure was identified on Oyster Island, located just off the shore from Rosses Point, Co. Sligo. Located on the south side of the island, the remains of what would have been a large, 120m-diameter irregular shaped enclosure is slowly being eroded by the sea. Funded by the Heritage Council, the small scale excavation for the purpose of retrieving environmental and dating samples was undertaken in July 2012. Sampling of the Oyster Island enclosure focused on the eastern terminal of the bank (at exactly 562883 839252 ITM), where it is being eroded away by sea action. A 20-30mm skim of material of the exposed bank section was removed to minimise possible contamination and then a small area, 0.5m wide by 0.3m high (measured from the base of the bank in the exposed section), was excavated to a depth of 50-70mm to remove over 10l of soil/shell samples. The purpose was to retrieve environmental remains, seeds, pollen, shells, bone and charcoal for further analysis and dating. Post-excavation analysis is still on going, however a calibrated C14 date of AD1264-1297 was retrieved from a piece of shell.
School of Science, Institute of Technology Sligo.
