County: Louth Site name: DROGHEDA: Bachelors Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0072
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 709227m, N 775517m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.717885, -6.345130
Archaeological testing of a proposed commercial development at Bachelors Lane, Drogheda, Co. Louth, took place on 19 March 1997. The site was located immediately outside the town wall on the north side of Bachelors Lane. The lane, which is medieval in origin, was known as the ‘Upper Lane to the Friars Minor’, and the powerful Preston family held a number of plots here (J. Bradley, ‘The topography and layout of medieval Drogheda’, JLAS 21 (1978), 113).
Two trenches were excavated at this site. The first trench was 5.2m long and 1.12m wide and was orientated east–west in the centre of the site. A thick layer of black soil containing shell, animal bone, charcoal and a single sherd of late medieval pottery was uncovered at a depth of 0.46m. The second trench, 12m long and 1m wide, was orientated east–west at the south end of the site. A black layer similar to that in Trench 1 revealed two sherds of post-medieval earthenware and was obviously disturbed. The west end of this trench revealed gravel at 0.5m which extended against the east face of the town wall. The black layer may be the remains of the town ditch cut into gravel some 3m east of the town wall.
5 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
