2016:200 - Bunnacranagh, Curry, Montiagh, Sligo

A programme of monitoring was carried out by Moore Group at Curry, Co. Sligo. The project involved the insertion, mainly by directional drilling techniques, of a new water mains pipe adjacent to the old pipe. In the vicinity of the ground work are a number of monuments. The project involved the laying of 3.1km of watermains pipes in existing road in the townlands of Bunnacranagh, Curry and Montiagh.

The groundworks were undertaken between May and June 2016 and consisted of the mechanical excavation of a series of launch and receptor pits for the purposes of pipe laying using directional drilling techniques. The pits were excavated at a distance of 100m apart and measured varying widths averaging 1.2m and to a maximum depth of 1.3m as per engineering specifications. No open cut trenches were excavated during this phase of the works. The majority of these pits were excavated into grassy verges along the edge of the road. On occasion when conditions dictated the pits were excavated into existing road surfaces. The stratigraphy exposed along the northern area of the pipeline consisted of a grassy sod layer over a dark brown clay with occasional stones over the underlying boulder clay. As the pipeline extended west the stratigraphy changed to a peat substrate due to the marshy nature of the surrounding area. No further material of an archaeological nature was found in any of the launch or receptor pits.

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