County: Louth Site name: DROGHEDA: Priest's Lane and Duleek St.
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: D.L. Swan, Arch. Tech Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 708955m, N 774655m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.710195, -6.349561
A third phase of archaeological investigation was necessitated as a result of alterations in the proposed development on the site. The revised plan called for a re-positioning of the storage tanks towards the southern part of the site, in a trench measuring approximately 10m x 5.5m x 1.5m, and a relocation of the shop and office facility along the western boundary of the site. Since it had been suggested that this boundary marked the line of the medieval town wall, it was decided to open a cutting along the full length of the proposed foundation trench, as well as two further cuttings to test the area where the tanks were to be located.
There was evidence for very extensive disturbance in the area proposed for the location of the tanks. These disturbed deposits directly overlay the undisturbed natural and thus there was no evidence for archaeologically significant activity in this area. In the case of the second cutting however, underlying the disturbed upper deposits and overlying the natural gravels and clays was a relatively undisturbed layer.
This layer can best be interpreted as evidence for cultivation, over a period of time sufficient to allow such a soil to accumulate to the depth encountered here. It is conceivable that the upper levels of this layer had been partly removed by relatively recent activity resulting in the formation and deposition of the overlying disturbed material. The absence of recent or modern material from this layer however, as well as the occurrence here of medieval pottery, albeit a single sherd, at a depth of 0.7m below the present surface, indicates the possibility that this area was cultivated over a long period of time, even perhaps from the later medieval period.
This raises the question of whether there is any likelihood of the south-west corner of the medieval town wall having been located on the line indicated on the OS maps of the area. The relatively undisturbed deposits encountered here, lack of any indication of a footing trench, and the complete absence of any stone concentrations from this layer, do not lend any support to the supposition that this was the location of such a line of walling.
Editor's note: This site was investigated during 1992 but the report was received too late for inclusion in that year's bulletin.
32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
