1993:110 - GALWAY: Merchants Rd., Galway

Excavation of two test trenches was carried out for A.D.S. with the intention of ascertaining the nature of the deposits beneath the proposed development at 15 Hynes Building Extension, Merchants Rd., Galway, which is located in the south-eastern part of the town.

The site consisted of an area measuring 19m x 16m, asphalt covered and used as a parking lot at 4.144m OD. The site was within the area of archaeological potential as outlined by The Urban Archaeology Survey, County Galway and in the medieval period would have been close to the city's curtain wall.

The excavation took place on 22nd February. The aims of the investigation were two-fold:a) ascertain whether any remains of the city wall ran through the site and b) test the nature and depth of the sub-surface deposits on the site.

Trench 1 was 16.6m in length, averaged 1.4m in width and was excavated to a maximum of 2.4m in depth. The deposits consisted of a layer of asphalt with an under-layer of grey gravel. Beneath this was a tan coloured layer of sand and gravel with numerous boulders 0.25m–0.35m in diameter. This material may be the remains of the demolished town wall. Towards the south-eastern end of the cutting this material was appreciably darker in colour and contained in its upper part a section of drain-pipe and towards the street end contained a layer of brick rubble. Stratified beneath this was a layer of black peat and orange clay which partly overlay a deposit of crushed brick and a layer of dark moist clay and sand. The layer of crushed brick appears to relate to the remains of a brick foundation situated directly to the south-east. To the south-east of this again was a demolition deposit of broken brick which probably formed the superstructure of a building. These deposits all overlay a fill of damp, peaty, organic material with inclusions of animal and bird bone, seashells and post-medieval brown and cream coloured glazed pot-sherds and ubiquitous clay-pipe stems. This appeared to be the remains of a compacted landfill whose origin was probably the rubbish heaps of the town. Beneath this was a steel-grey boulder clay. There was no indication of the city wall or of a robber trench.

Trench 2 was 16.3m in length, averaged 1m in width and was excavated to a maximum depth of 2.5m. In this cutting the stratigraphy was generally similar to Trench 1, with asphalt and grey angular gravel covering a number of concrete rafts which relate to the foundations of the previous building on the site. These rafts overlay a layer of tan-coloured sand and boulders which may be the demolition deposit of the town wall. The demolition deposits of rotting brick and brick foundation wall were absent. Instead the layer of dark organic fill was much thicker and extended from a depth of 0.6m to 2.5m and again directly overlay the steel-grey boulder clay.

The excavation revealed that the town wall did not run through this site. The deep deposit of peaty landfill indicates that this area was on the exterior side of the wall. The property boundary to the north probably marks the original course of the wall. The deposit of sand, gravel and boulders probably represent the demolished remains of the wall which were spread across the site to level it after the demolition of the brick buildings on the site and before the construction of the concrete rafts. The occurrence of mainly post-medieval diagnostics in the landfill indicates that this was an 18th- or 19th-century deposit.

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