County: Sligo Site name: Abbeytown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: None Licence number: 17E0087
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 565824m, N 829335m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.211778, -8.523927
Pre-development testing of a site at Abbeytown townland, on the outskirts of Ballysadare in County Sligo, was carried out between 14 and 16 February 2017. The proposed development was a new burial ground with associated car parking. There were no recorded monuments within or in the immediate vicinity of the site, which consisted of three field of pasture which sloped down from south-south-east to north-north-west. A condition of the planning permission requested licensed monitoring of the proposed works, however, subsequent to the grant a recommendation was made by the National Monuments Service that the proposed development site should be subject to a geophysical survey. The resulting survey (Detection Device No. 16R0111) identified a number of anomalies of potential archaeological significance which required further investigation.
Testing consisted of the excavation (by machine) of sixteen trenches located to investigate the geophysical anomalies. The trenches measured 9.7m, 20m, 10.3m, 20m, 10.5m, 14.9m, 9.8m, 20m, 29.8m, 9.9m, 9.7m, 19.8m, 9m, 25.3m, 15m and 10.5m respectively; 1.8-2.1m wide and 0.2-1.2m deep. A wall foundation was uncovered in one of the test trenches, which corresponded to a section of an L-shaped anomaly. Unfortunately no dating evidence was recovered to assist in dating the feature. Its width suggested a post-medieval or modern date. The Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs agreed with the recommendation in the testing report that the feature should be preserved in situ below the car park and that the ground reduction in the surrounding area of the site should be monitored. The subsequent monitoring took place on 1 March 2017. Traces of the wall foundation were visible, extending 8m south-east from the test trench in which it was uncovered. A number of modern pottery sherds were recovered from the topsoil. The wall foundation was preserved in situ. Nothing further of archaeological significance was in evidence.
4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, County Mayo
