County: Sligo Site name: St John’s Hospital, Ballytivnan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 13E0026
Author: James Hession
Site type: Monitoring – post-medieval burials
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 569457m, N 836851m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.279545, -8.468993
A programme of monitoring was undertaken at the Old Convent, St John’s Hospital, Ballytivnan, Sligo between 3 and 9 of January 2013. These works were undertaken on behalf of the Health Service Executive (HSE). The development at the site consists of a change of use of the old convent building from residential to office accommodation. The archaeological programme consisted of monitoring all groundworks associated with the insertion of sewerage lines, storm drains and accompanying attenuation pits.
Human remains of 19th-century date were encountered within a service trench during the initial ground investigation undertaken. The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) was contacted for advice regarding how to deal with the remains and subsequently a method statement was drawn up in consultation with the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht (DoAHG) and the NMI. The regulatory bodies specified that, given the fact the area where the human remains were identified was not going to be impacted on further, it would suffice to analyse the bones already lifted and to clean and fully record any further remains in situ.
The burials were represented by an older child (Skeleton 1) and an adult male (Skeleton 2). The disarticulated material contained the minimum number of individuals (MNI) of one – a younger child. In total for this site there was a MNI of three individuals excavated.
No further archaeological deposits or features were identified during the ancillary works associated with the development.
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