2003:2244 - TUAM: Bishop Street, Galway

Testing was carried out on a proposed development site at Bishop Street, Tuam, on 27 and 28 February 2003. The site is located at the north-west edge of the zone of archaeological potential around Tuam, which is classified as a monastic town (SMR 29:199) and contains several monuments. The proposed development site (c. 40m by 10m) lies within the area of archaeological constraint around an early ecclesiastical enclosure and ecclesiastical building. The site lies within the suggested bounds of the ecclesiastical enclosure, some 70m north-east of the site of Templenascreen Church. Two relatively modern dwellings which fronted onto Bishop Street were demolished prior to testing. The floor level of the demolished houses is about 1m below the surface of the long rear garden.

Two trenches (c. 25m long) were excavated in the garden. The stratigraphy was uniform across the tested area, a deep, grey/brown, silty sand garden soil, 0.7m in depth, overlying a light fawn-coloured sandy subsoil with stones. Two subcircular pits, averaging 1.5m in diameter, were discovered in the garden. They contained grey/brown silty sand fills with stone and occasional pieces of brick, slate, oyster shell, animal bone and relatively modern potsherds. One was 0.4m in depth. The pits were deemed to be of probable 19th-century date. No archaeological material was discovered.