1992:134 - CARLINGFORD: Tholsel St, Louth

In 1991 the Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust purchased a derelict site in Tholsel St, Carlingford Permission has been received for the construction of houses, apartments and shop units on the site. Prior to this development the area had to be investigated by archaeologists.

Mounds of rubble and concrete walls were removed (remnants of previous attempts to build on the site in the last decade) and 4 trenches were excavated. A few structural remains and some medieval pottery sherds were uncovered.

The most significant feature in the excavation of the site was a breakwater, which extended across the site parallel to the line of Tholsel St. Areas of cobbling were also uncovered and a square structure of unknown function abutted the breakwater on the harbour side.

The site is located directly opposite a 16th-century merchant's town house known as The Mint and the 15th-century Tholsel or town gate is located to the south-west, at the end of the street. The area of Tholsel St was densely inhabited during the medieval period. At this time the excavated site was part of the shore-line of Carlingford Lough and was susceptible to high tidal inundations. A strong breakwater was constructed to prevent the flooding of Tholsel St. This breakwater lay only at the front of The Mint and as one moves from The Mint frontage the breakwater becomes rather crude in construction–a bank of stone and slaty material.

The well-built breakwater has a definite terminal. Adjacent to this is an area of cobbling which may have been used as an access to the shore-line and was probably cut through the cruder part of the breakwater at a later date. The square structure abutting the breakwater is a later addition and may be contemporary with the cobbling.

At a later period a series of houses and gardens was built on the site; a stone building and the gable of a house still survive from the late 17th century.

Almost 400 small finds were found on the site; the majority were pottery, the remainder were glass, clay pipes and a couple of iron nails. Twenty-five percent of the pottery sherds were medieval, all of local origin and dating to the late 13th and early 14th centuries, except one body sherd from north-west France which has a date range from the 11th to the early 13th centuries. The remainder were post-medieval and generally late 18th and 19th century in date. The pieces of glass date from the 18th to the 20th centuries and the clay pipes are 19th century in date.