2002:0739 - GALWAY: 7 Quay Street, Galway

Testing of a site at No. 7 Quay Street, Galway, before development was carried out from 2 to 7 May 2002. The proposed development is within the archaeological constraint zone for Galway city, SMR 94:100. The development consisted of the demolition of a single-storey extension to the rear and the change of use of the existing residence to a coffee shop, to include a new ground-floor extension and elevation alterations. Because of the small size of the site (13m by 4m), only one trench was excavated by hand, through the centre of the site. It was oriented east-south-east/west-north-west and was 11.9m long, 0.7–1.1m wide and 0.3–0.6m deep (proposed groundworks did not exceed 0.5m deep).

The stratigraphy revealed was an existing concrete floor slab, 50–200mm thick, overlying a cobbled surface, a stone flag floor, two service pipes, rubble fill and a soft, dark brown, friable deposit with frequent shell. Below the rubble fill was grey boulder clay, a rubble wall foundation and natural sands and gravels. Only one course of the wall foundation was extant. It was oriented north-north-east/south-south-west and was 0.3m high and 0.95m wide.

A small number of sherds of modern pottery and one rimsherd of Saintonge ware were recovered from the rubble fill. The rubble fill also contained plastic, slate, boulders and red-brick fragments. The width of the wall foundation, 0.95m, suggested a post-medieval date for the feature; however, as only 0.9m of its length was visible in the trench, this was not conclusive.