2024:368 - 2 Treaty Villas, Thomondgate, Limerick

Archaeological test excavation took place in advance of redevelopment of a site from retail to apartment block including expansion on to the rear of the site.  It consisted of the mechanical excavation of a c. 5m wide test trench employing a flat-edged grading bucket. The nature of the site also required the use of a rock breaker to break the concrete surface in advance of excavation. The northernmost section of the test trench was situated in the garden section of the rear of the site. It was 4m in length. Its stratigraphy consisted of 0.1m sod and topsoil above 0.2m building debris and clay above the exposed natural subsoil surface of yellow boulder clay. The overall depth was 0.3m. An active ESB duct traversed the north section of the trench. The remaining 7m of the trench was set on the concrete plinth. Its stratigraphy consisted of 0.2m concrete above 0.5m to 0.6m builders’ rubble above 0.4m natural yellow boulder clay. The overall depth was 1.2m. A 20^th-century wastewater pipe ran the length of the trench set 0.15m above its base. This pipe was set in the natural subsoil. All materials encountered were 20^th-century rubble, building debris, building surfaces and services or natural subsoil conditions. No archaeology was encountered.