County: Galway Site name: Galway: Quay St./Kirwan's Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0267
Author: Paul Stevens, Archaeological Services Ltd
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 529765m, N 725229m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.272739, -9.052979
Work was undertaken at the rear of No. 22 Quay St., Galway, on behalf of the Archaeological Services Unit Ltd. Trial- trenching and monitoring of pile trenches took place between 28 November and 20 December, in advance of development, in compliance with planning permission.
Three trenches were excavated by machine to a depth of 1.8-1.9m within an area of 10m x 5m, backing onto Kirwan's Lane. No significant archaeological features were uncovered in the areas affected by development. However, a substantial depth of archaeological deposits was revealed. The pottery recovered from the site was 13th/14th-century in date and from south-west France, with one Irish exception. Animal bone, fish bone and marine mollusca were common throughout the deposits. These have yet to be analysed fully.
The stratigraphy of the site was largely uniform throughout: concrete and angular rubble sealed an earlier modern floor which lay over the western half of the site. Four phases of Kirwan's Lane abutted the present stone wall of No. 22 Quay St., partly rebuilt in concrete, which did not pre-date the 19th century. Underlying these features were two layers of clay covering the whole site. These layers yielded bone, charcoal, shell and medieval pottery. Beneath these were several thin layers of peat and a shell midden, largely consisting of periwinkles. Two shallow features appeared at this level but were not structural. A layer of hard sand and associated charcoal across the western half of the site appeared stratigraphically lower. At the same level, through unrelated, was a layer of oyster midden. These layers sealed a layer of moist cobbles and grit lying across most of the site. In the north corner of the site was a peat buildup sealing several thin layers of clay and sand. Underlying all of the above was a layer of brown peat with waterlogged wood, lying on patches of black sand. Patches of brown organic silt were sealed by the black sand and brown peat, within the fissures of the rhyolite/granite bedrock. Medieval pottery was recovered from this lowest level and no subsoil was apparent on the site.
Oranmore Industrial Park, Claregalway Rd, Oranmore, Co. Galway
