1996:289 - DUNDALK: Rampart Road, Louth

The site for two apartment blocks is located between Park Street and Rampart Road, Dundalk, within the medieval suburb known as ‘Upper Quarter’ or ‘Upper End’, first referred to in 1382 and which was encompassed by the town defences during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Rampart Road follows the course of the Rampart River, an artificial watercourse constructed about 1590.

Five trenches up to 5.5m in length were excavated on the 60m x 35m site. Natural silt was exposed across the site at depths ranging from 1.25m to 1.55m, overlain by a brown peat with decayed reeds of a former bog or fen. On the surface of the peat in places was a deposit of sandy silt, 0.1–0.2m thick, containing medieval pottery, iron slag, animal bones and mussel shells. The eleven pottery sherds suggest development in the Park Street area at least as early as the first half of the fourteenth century. No evidence of structures was found in the area tested and the source of the archaeological material is more likely to be found on the slightly higher ground closer to Park Street.

Subsequent deposits of clay and stone may also be of medieval date, representing deliberate landfill on the soft ground. The uppermost 1m of fill consisted of the garden soils of properties shown on maps of 1680 and 1785, and stone walls of demolished buildings which can be identified on OS maps. The depth of the raft-foundations of the apartment blocks did not exceed 0.4m and the archaeological deposits were not disturbed by the development.