2012:528 - Culleenamore, Sligo

A single dwelling and associated works are proposed for this site. The existing ruinous two-story house in the overgrown garden at the front of the site is to be demolished to provide space for the proposed house. The field, at the back, has several mature trees. There is no evidence of archaeology within the site but the location is just across the road from the shoreline in an area of considerable coastal human activity in the past. Shell middens are almost continuous along this shore (SL014-136 to 138), and while most are prehistoric some are modern (Burenhult 1984; Milner and Woodman 2007; Ó Muraíle 2013; Woodman and Milner 2013).
The site was tested by six trenches avoiding mature trees that are to be retained and the house which could not yet be demolished. All trenches were 1.7m wide. Trenches 4 to 6 were opened in the back field, Trenches 1 to 3 were opened in the front garden.
Trench 6 was dug for a length of 4m in a south-west to north-east direction. A 0.15m-thick spread of oyster shells was found at the north end of this trench. Here the soil was beginning to deepen with the slope of the field. The shells were exposed for a length of 3m at a depth of 0.6m in the trench. Its position is well beyond the area required for any proposed structure in this development. There were no finds to date the shells. The spread was sealed back again.
Trench 5 was dug for a length of 50m in a west to east direction. At the very west end some cockle shells accompanied by modern crockery and glass were found. These would appear to be late 19th or 20th-century refuse from the house.
Trench 4 was dug for a length of 42m in a west to east direction. The gravelly material in the topsoil had been imported to firm up the ground and outside of the gate was an area raised with lots of stones to improve access to the field. The trench here was dug to 0.6m to reach the natural.
At the west end of Trench 4 and almost in the gateway between the garden and the field there were two spreads of oyster shells. The first was centred 4.4m from the gable of the house and measured 0.6m across by 0.12m deep. The second was 7.5m from the gable and was 0.5m across by 0.15m deep. They are really part of the distribution of spreads of oyster shells exposed in Trenches 3, 2 and 1. There were no finds among the exposed shells in the back field.
Trench 3 was dug for a length of 19m in an east to west direction across the front of the existing house. Oyster shells were found at four locations in this trench. These were only a few shells deep, 50mm in each case, and two of the spreads were diagonal in the trench.
Trench 2 was dug for a length of 19m in an east to west direction. Trenches 3 and 2 were 5m apart. Oyster shells were found at six locations in this trench. Again, these were only a few shells, 50mm deep in each case, and two of the spreads were diagonal in the trench.
Trench 1 was dug for a length of 22m in a north to south direction from the boundary with the adjacent property where there are several semi-mature trees, to as close as possible to the proposed new entry at the roadside boundary wall. Oyster shells were found at one location in this trench. This 2m long and 80mm deep spread was in front of the main door of the house.
In these three trenches, Nos 1 to 3, eleven thin spreads of oyster were exposed. Most of these looked as if someone had literally thrown bucketfulls of shells across the surface. They could have been used to firm up the parking area at the house in recent years. There was only a skim of topsoil over them and gravelly material underlay them. There was nothing to date any of them.
The Griffith Valuation records an oyster fishery ‘adjoining Culleenamore’; this was an active 19th-century oyster fishery, one of many active in the late 19th century (McTernan, Foot of Knocknarea, 1990, 86-88), so not all of the shell middens need be ‘ancient’. Dennis Mannion of nearby Carrowdough daily collected cockles on Culleenamore Strand in recent decades. This suggestion of a modern date for the use of oysters in quantity in this area would not be unusual. In late 2012 pieces of a milk cooling dish were found with oyster shells on Harmony Hill in Sligo town, four miles away (below No. 539, 11E0262). A wellington boot and a bicycle chain were found with shells while monitoring at Graigue, about two miles, away several years ago.
As the field can be considered to be archaeologically resolved and the garden has undated, but possibly modern, oyster spreads, the further archaeological resolution of this site will take place in 2013 following on demolition of the existing house.

References:
Burenhult, Göran, 1984: The Archaeology of Carrowmore Environmental Archaeology and the Megalithic Tradition at Carrowmore, Co. Sligo, Ireland, Theses and Papers in North-European Archaeology 14, Stockholm, University of Stockholm.
Milner, N.J. and Woodman, P.C., 2007: “Deconstructing the myths of Irish shell middens”, in Milner, Craig and Bailey, eds., 2007, 101-110.
Milner, N., Craig, O.E. and Bailey, G.N., Eds., 2007: Shell Middens in Atlantic Europe. Oxford, Oxbow Books.
Ó Muraíle, Nollaig, 2013: “Sligeach – The Original and Correct Name of Sligo” in Timoney, ed., 2013, 97-102
Timoney, Martin A., ed., Dedicated to Sligo, Thirty-four Essays on Sligo’s Past, Keash, Publishing Sligo’s Past.
Woodman, Peter C. and Milner, Nicky, 2013: “From Restaurant to Take-Away: Placing Sligo Shell Middens in Context”, in Timoney, ed., 2013, 37-40.

Bóthar an Corainn, Keash, Co. Sligo.