2017:685 - Castlebaldwin 4 - 6, Sligo

Stage (iii) archaeological excavation was carried out at Castlebaldwin 4 - 6 in advance of the N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin Road Development, Co. Sligo. The site was discovered during Stage (i) archaeological testing and was assessed during Stage (ii) Pre-Excavation Services (Registration Number E4627).

The excavation at Castlebaldwin 4–6 recorded the remains of a large area of brushwood and roundwood, comprising several different platforms or trackways, with over 2,600 worked elements. One large burnt mound with a well-preserved timber-lined trough and five smaller burnt spreads were also recorded.

Three main trackways were recorded. Trackways A and C were very similar in form and both ran on an east-south-east/west-north-west orientation for almost 90m in length with a short break of almost 10m at the eastern end of the site acting as the only break in the trackway.
Trackway B was a short well-defined trackway running north-north-east/south-south-west overlying trackway A and served as access to the stream directly south of the site works.

The finds recovered from the site were diverse. The sand underlying the peat contained animal bone and prehistoric flint and chert artefacts, including hammer stones, a flint core, projectile heads, scrapers, struck and retouched pieces of chert and flint and a bent gold-plated pin. Flint and chert objects and the upper portion of a human skull, along with a large quantity of well-preserved animal bone were recovered from the peat. A wooden lid and two horseshoes were found in Cuttings 3 and 5 respectively. A wooden toggle and a small flat wooden disk, possibly a button or gaming piece, were recovered from Cutting 1 and an unknown worked wooden object was found in Cutting 10.

Image: Working shot of Cuttings 1 -3 looking east.

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