Valley bottom and hilltop: 6,000 years of settlement along the route of the N4 Sligo Inner Relief Road by Michael MacDonagh

Over the Spring and Summer of 2003 archaeological excavations along the proposed route of the N4 Sligo Inner Relief Road & County Extension (N4 SIRR) opened a fascinating window onto the prehistoric landscape of the Cúil Irra peninsula, revealing evidence of settlement stretching back some 6,000 years into the Early Neolithic. Later settlement in the Bronze and Iron Ages was also found along the r…