2018:355 - St Paul's Church, Collooney, Sligo

The development works entailed the conversion and restoration of the north transept of St Paul’s Church of Ireland (NIAH Reg. No. 32310013) for the purposes of providing a community and educational space. As part of the work installation of services was required including a new sewer line and below-ground electrical cables for air conditioning in the graveyard adjacent to the church. Development works included the refurbishment of the existing access path.
Monitoring of groundworks was undertaken on 24 and 25 September 2018. The service trenches for the sewer and air conditioning duct were excavated using a mechanical excavator equipped with a non-graded bucket. Surrounding gravestones were protected to ensure no damage would occur to them during excavation. Work began directly adjacent to the north transept where a new entrance has been inserted into the eastern wall. A linear trench measuring 12m in length, 0.4m deep and 0.5m wide was mechanically excavated from this new entrance running south to north. A second shallow trench measuring 0.3m deep, 0.45m wide and 3m long was mechanically excavated running north-west to south-east from the new entrance to the north transept to the eastern wall of the sacristy. No material of an archaeological nature was noted during monitoring of the excavation of these trenches.
The gravel surface of the existing paths was removed using mechanical excavator under archaeological supervision. An area of existing path measuring in total length 54.74m from east to west was stripped of gravel. A maximum depth of 0.15m of gravel was removed to the underlying geotextile material. Graves exist to either side of the path, new kerbing for the footpath was erected leaving a buffer zone with the edge of the graves. No find or features of an archaeological nature were noted during the removal of the gravel path.

17 Cooldrumman Upper, Carney, Co. Sligo