2019:152 - ARKLOW: Back Street, Wicklow

Wicklow County Council proposes to develop a derelict site at Back Street in Arklow, County Wicklow under Part 8 Development. The development is for social housing and at present the site comprises abandoned sheds and derelict buildings. This site is within the archaeological constraint area for Arklow historic town (WI040-029—).

The site at Back Street is between 200-300m from the nearest RMP monument and the stratigraphy and historic mapping indicates that the site has had many phases of modern development built upon a horizon of natural gravels and sand. The stratigraphy indicates that this area may have been prone to flooding by the Avoca River in antiquity.

Eight nineteenth-century ceramic sherds of refined white ware were retrieved from the uppermost demolition layer. Other contemporary finds included one intact mid-nineteenth-century wine bottle, one intact nineteenth-century stoneware flagon, a fragment of a nineteenth-century ink pot, several fragments of clay sewage pipe, a door bolt, and several highly corroded and unidentifiable pieces of iron.

In conclusion, no evidence for pre-modern archaeology was observed. All horizons above the natural sand bed exhibited evidence of considerable disturbance, which began in the nineteenth century and continued into living memory.