1991:125 - ATHLONE: The Docks/Williams' Yard, Westmeath

In December 1990 and February 1991 Archaeological Development Services Ltd. carried out an archaeological site assessment on behalf of Athlone Urban District Council on two adjacent sites known as The Docks and Williams’ Yard, located on the west bank of the Shannon in Athlone.

Williams’ Yard and the north part of the Docks are in the Zone of Archaeological Potential identified for Athlone by the Urban Archaeology Survey.

Little is known of the development of Athlone west of the Shannon. If there were a substantial medieval town on this side of the river, the present sites should have been part of it, but it is not certain that such a town ever existed. It is more likely that the sites formed part of the precinct of the Cluniac Priory of SS Peter and Paul, founded in the 12th century. The monastic buildings of this priory were located some distance to the west in the angle between Excise Street and Abbey Lane, but this precinct would have covered a large area and must surely have incorporated a river frontage on the Shannon. Thus the present sites may have remained undeveloped until after the priory was dissolved in the later 16th century. In the later 17th century the town defences (first erected 1651-4) on the southern limits of the town ran roughly along the line of the east-west portion of Excise Street, ending beside the river in a large demi-bastion at the east end of Excise Street. The street pattern around the sites (apart from The Quay) was already laid out in its modern form by 1685.

The assessment trenches both outside the line of the town defences and in the area of the 17th-century bastion (i.e. Trenches 3-7, The Docks) displayed only modern material, with no evidence of archaeological stratigraphy. A dock or harbour known as St Peter’s Port occupied the area in the late-18th and 19th centuries, and its construction probably destroyed all trace of the bastion. Within the line of the defences, from c. 1.3m below present ground level, were substantial deposits of organic material resting directly on undisturbed river gravels and muds at c. 1.9m-2m below present ground level. This organic deposit represents the earliest sustained occupation on the site and a later 17th/early 18th-century date was indicated by artifactual evidence.

Given that the street pattern around the sites was already established by 1685, there may have been earlier 17th-century occupation on the site. However, there is no evidence of medieval occupation, which tends to support the hypothesis that this area was part of the precinct of the Cluniac Priory throughout the medieval period. This in turn raises fundamental questions about the extent and nature of medieval settlement on the Connacht side of Athlone.