1995:194 - DROGHEDA: Calendar Building, Bachelors Lane, Louth

Archaeological monitoring was carried out on a proposed apartment complex in the Calendar Building, Bachelors Lane, Drogheda, Co. Louth, in April 1995. The site lies within the walled medieval town, which constitutes an area of archaeological potential. Trenches were excavated and filled with concrete to within 0.3m of ground level before any monitoring took place. Monitoring was confined therefore to an examination of the sections in the various cuttings and the removal of some 0.3m of material from the north end of the building.

It would appear that medieval deposits exist at ground level within the building. A grey sandy layer covers the entire floor of the building and contained sherds of early medieval local and imported wares. This layer could be seen to extend below the concrete in the trenches, but how much stratigraphy survives below it is difficult to determine. Near the Bachelors Lane side of the building, the foundation walls of two structures were uncovered. These probably represent houses which fronted onto Bachelors Lane. A black organic layer which may have been associated with one of the buildings contained oyster shell and sherds of late medieval pottery. Both buildings belong either to late in the medieval period or to the early post-medieval period. The foundation walls were 0.85m in thickness and were cut into the grey sandy layer. The dimensions of the most westerly building were 5m by 8.5m. Only a small return of a second building was discovered in the corner of a trench to the east of the first building. The foundation wall was of a similar thickness but the building was nearer Bachelors Lane and probably not as big as the first. A small section of a cobbled area was uncovered immediately north of the first building, suggesting the presence of an associated backyard.

As it was proposed to lower ground level inside the building to provide a carpark which would involve substantial destruction of the archaeological deposits, further work was recommended.