1993:164 - DUNDALK: The Long Walk, Louth

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Louth Site name: DUNDALK: The Long Walk

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0039

Author: Eoin Halpin, A.D.S Ltd.

Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous

Period/Dating: Undetermined

ITM: E 704428m, N 807610m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.007149, -6.406886

The site is situated to the west of Clanbrassil St. in the corner formed by the right-angled turn of the Long Walk. At the time of the investigations much of the site had been cleared of the buildings associated with the use of the site as a builder's yard, vehicle parts manufacturer and garden.

The north-south line of the Long Walk reflects the line of the Anglo-Norman town defences which consisted of a wall and external trench. The character and extent of the latter is unclear but it may have extended up to 10m to 15m beyond the wall. Two rectangular wall towers are thought to have existed on the stretch of wall running the length of the Long Walk. Neither are located exactly but one is thought to be located in the area to the east of the site*

The area proposed for development consisted of marshland and swamp when Dundalk was established in the 13th century and there does not appear to have been any permanent settlement on this ground prior to 1700, although the possibility that early historic, or indeed pre-historic settlement, occurred on the ground, cannot be discounted.

In all seven trenches were dug using a mechanical digger under archaeological supervision. Two were located in the area to the south, designated for the construction of a multi-storey car-park. A further two were investigated, running perpendicular to the line of the Long Walk, along the east side of the site. One trench was opened running south from the northern boundary of the area and finally, two trenches were dug at the western end of the development.

The high point of the site is towards the north-east corner, with the ground sloping away from here in all directions. With the removal of most of the upstanding buildings this height difference has become more pronounced. What is clear from these series of trenches is that, to a large extent, this difference in levels is due to the presence, in the northern and eastern parts of the site, of up to 1m of overburden of modern back-fill material. This material appears to have been introduced in order to consolidate an area of very swampy, marshy ground which extended from the line of the Long Walk westwards, at least as far as the line of services, which cross the western part of the site. This marshy ground was not noted in Trenches 6 or 7.

The area of the garden is to be built up prior to construction of the car park and no damage is likely to occur to the sub-soil deposits, unspectacular as they appear to be. The use of the area as a garden and orchard has severely disturbed the upper layers of soil and there did not appear to be any archaeology cut into the underlying natural soils. All of the finds noted were post-medieval or modern in date with many fragments of modern glass ware and red brick recovered.

The two cuttings towards the west end of the site simply revealed that the ground at this end was never wet or swampy enough to require the consolidation noted at the east end. Here, the dry boulder clay soils supported at least one red brick building and evidence was noted of associated activity in the form of pits and/or gullies, but none of these were of any real significance.

The only feature of note recorded during the testing consists of a layer of darker coloured soil which runs parallel to the line of the Long Walk and by association the line of the old town wall. However, despite close examination of the soils dug from the feature, not one piece of archaeological material was noted, no flecks of charcoal, shell, bone or pottery, indeed nothing to indicate the presence of a feature except the soil colour change.

This soil colour change was noted in two other places, where it is due to modification of either the overlying drainage pattern or due to natural changes in the levels of ground water.

The dark ditch-like feature noted close to the line of the Long Walk is unlikely to be the western edge of the medieval ditch. It is more likely to be a product of the construction of house fronts, roads and drains which together have combined to modify the local sub-soil conditions causing the darkening noted during trenching. In any event the proposed development of this area of the site involves the construction of a car park with no intention of disturbing the sub-soil deposits to any great extent.

*Gosling, P. 1982 A Survey and Report on the Archaeological remains of the Town and District in 3 Parts. Dundalk.

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