1997:206 - GALWAY: Hackett's Shop, Prospect Hill, Galway

Because of the occurrence of late medieval houses on the Pictorial Map of Galway of 1651–2, archaeological test-trenching was required on this development site.

Trench 1 extended across most of the length of the backyard to the rear of the house. It revealed two slightly different stratigraphic sequences. Immediately outside the back wall and extending for some 3.5m the sequence was concrete flooring set in a layer of old red brick, small stones and rubble over a layer of limestone cobbles set in a mixed soil with some small stones, and a few very large boulders. Below this was undisturbed natural. From 3.5m to the back wall of the garden the stratigraphy was the same except that there was no mixed soil level between the cobbles and the natural. Two oyster shells were found in the soil in which the cobbles had been set.

The second trench was laid out at right angles to the first and produced concrete flooring over the cobble layer over boulder clay. A large boulder (natural) occupied a good proportion of one end of the trench. There were no finds from this trench.

In area 1A the cobbling was uncovered to record a typical segment of that surface. Test-trenching produced few finds apart from red brick, concrete and limestone cobbles. The only finds were a rimsherd from a Buckley Ware vessel which had been used to wedge the cobbles in position, a basal sherd of a modern porcelain cup, and a hair-oil bottle of a type used until the 1940s from the concrete and stone layer above the cobbles.

Trench 3 was dug inside the site of the 19th-century shop roughly parallel with the end wall. It proved to have been much disturbed. Below the concrete floor was a modern fill in which a sewer pipe had been laid. This trench was dug in one of the few remaining available places at this end of the building since further wires and buried cables occurred to the west. Nothing of archaeological significance was found.

Trench 4 was dug at right angles to Trenches 3 and 5. Nothing of significance was noted.

Trench 5 ran inside the east gable wall of the house and was cut through the site of the recently demolished long back wall to determine the relationships between the house and the cobbled layer inside the house. Nothing of significance was found.

The foundations of the back wall were 0.25m and 0.3m deep. No finds and no further walling occurred below the 19th-century back wall. Outside the back wall the stratigraphy was similar to Trenches 1 and 2. The only find was a piece of a North Devonshire sgraffito plate. This too had been reused to wedge some cobble stones together.

The only other finds were two 18th/19th-century pieces of clay pipe stem from above and below the cobble layer in Trench 5.

The results of trial-trenching are extremely disappointing. At this stage it would seem pointless to expect any archaeological deposits to have survived at the site. It seems likely that any late medieval buildings which might have been present have been completely removed without trace.

'St Gerards', 18 College Road, Galway