County: Louth Site name: DROGHEDA: Fair St.
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0144
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen
Site type: Town
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 708527m, N 775317m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.716235, -6.355798
The site was part of the courtyard of the 18th-century Corn Exchange, where the late 19th-century court-house had stood. It was excavated in advance of the construction of new Council offices. After demolition of the court-house, the site had been covered with a layer of hard core 0.2–0.3m deep. This was removed in three wide strips across the site, revealing brown sandy soil containing recent ceramic sherds and brick fragments. Part of the foundations of the court-house were also exposed.
Three test-trenches were then dug by machine. These revealed that the site had been disturbed to a considerable depth, partly in very recent times, presumably when the court-house was being demolished, but partly in earlier times. These earlier cuttings appeared to be sand-pits which had later been backfilled. The lowest layer of fill contained late medieval pottery of mainly local origin.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Dublin 6W, for Project Director V.J. Keeley
