1997:241 - DINGLE: Market House, Main Street, Kerry

This test excavation followed a planning application for the redevelopment of P. & T. Fitzgerald's supermarket on Main Street, Dingle, Co. Kerry. The development site was thought to be the site of 'Hussey's Castle', the vaults of which had been used as a jail until 1815. The castle was built in 1580 and subsequently owned by the Knight of Kerry. Dingle was incorporated at this building in 1607 and the structure became known as the Market House. The present structure dates from the 19th century and is a very fine listed building. To the rear, on the second storey of an old granary, is an architectural limestone fragment with a motif of an interlacing vine dating from the 16th century.

Four trenches were excavated in advance of construction to determine the nature and extent of subsurface archaeological remains. All trenches were excavated through existing concrete floors, which were removed by jackhammer. Further monitoring of all ground disturbance aspects of the development was also carried out.

Trench 1 abutted the rear of the present building. Its function was to ascertain the nature/date of a formidable east/west-running wall. The trench measured 3m x 1.5m and was 3m deep. Six contexts were recorded, including a cobbled layer and two stone-built drains. Some early modern pottery sherds and some small mammal bones were recovered. The basal footings of the wall were uncovered but displayed no architectural feature that could be interpreted as being earlier than the early modern period.

Trench 2 was opened inside a warehouse south-west of Trench 1 on the line of the foundations of the proposed development. It measured 3m x 1.4m and 1.8m in depth and contained eleven contexts, including three cobbled layers, the foundations of two early modern walls, and other rubble material with brick and blue slate (Bangor) intermixed. A clay pipe fragment and three sherds of early modern pottery were also recovered.

Trench 3 was located close to the stairs of the annexe at the rear of the main existing building immediately north of Trench 2. It measured 2.4m x 1.2m and was 1m deep. Three contexts were recorded. Apart from a stone-built drain and the ubiquitous cobbling, rubble fill extended throughout the trench.

Trench 4 was located in the yard east of the granary and measured 2m x 1.1m. Four contexts were recorded, and again a similar pattern to the previous trenches emerged, i.e. occupational debris and cobbling dating from the early modern period.

Monitoring of all ground disturbance aspects of Phase 1 of this development, including excavations under the existing shop front at Main Street, revealed the same post-medieval or early modern activity.

No archaeological remains earlier than the early modern period were found in the test-trenches or in any of the other archaeological monitoring associated with this phase of the development. It would seem, therefore, that either 'Hussey's Castle' was not built at this location after all, or the current 18th-century building is not in fact the Market House. Phase 2 of this development programme is scheduled for March/April 1998 and may shed further light on the hidden medieval archaeology of Dingle town.

43 Ard Carraig, Tralee, Co. Kerry