2023:457 - Queen Street, Townparks, Galway, Galway

Archaeological monitoring of site investigations was carried on a proposed development site at Queen Street, Galway on 24 May 2023. The development site is located in what was formerly a tidal area immediately east of the medieval walled town. These lands were reclaimed in the early 19^th century and the site was developed as a gasworks. The gasworks infrastructure was removed in the second half of the 20^th century and the site was subsequently developed as a service area for oil tanker trucks operating out of the adjacent oil depot. The site lies outside the area of archaeological constraint for the historic town (GA094-100) but there are two protected structures adjoining the site: a Methodist Church to the northeast, and a stable block to the southeast.

Four test pits were opened: two centrally-located within the site, one adjacent to the north-east boundary wall, and one adjacent to the south-east site boundary wall. The centrally-located pits revealed heavily-contaminated rubble under the reinforced concrete slab, with excavations further complicated by significant water ingress. The contamination is clearly a result of the site’s former use as an oil tanker truck service area. In the north-east pit, adjacent to the boundary wall with the adjoining Methodist Church, there was 1m of rubble over 0.7m of dark grey silt containing occasional  winkle shells and charcoal flecks. This silt deposit was interpreted as the pre-land reclamation estuarine silt or mud. The boundary wall foundation is built of the local green migmatite stone and extends to a minimum depth of 0.6m below the existing ground level, at which point there is a narrow plinth on the wall. In the south-east pit, adjacent to the north-west wall of the old railway station stable block, there was 0.8m of concrete and rubble over 0.2m of light brown sandy clay over light brown clay natural. The wall foundation is built directly on the natural ground and is composed of roughly-hewn limestones, with a narrow plinth at a depth of 0.55m.

No archaeology was found during monitoring of site investigations and it appears likely that much of the site is very disturbed as a result of previous developments. However, it is considered that the silt deposit, found in the test pit in the north extent of the site, has the potential to contain archaeology.