1997:378 - DROGHEDA: 26–27 Dyer Street, Louth

The site is located to the rear of Nos 26–27 Dyer Street, two buildings of late 18th/early 19th-century date which were demolished in 1996 to facilitate road-widening and the construction of the Interceptor Sewer. The street frontage was included in the excavations carried out by Donald Murphy during 1996 (Excavations 1996, 77, 96E0160).

In January 1997 five test-pits were excavated by machine on the 14m x 15m site of the proposed new building, which will be set back 6.5m from the line of the original street. The test-pits, 1m wide and 2–4m long, were excavated to the surface of the archaeological deposits. On the south side of the site, on the new street line, deposits of late 17th- to early 18th-century date occurred at a depth of 0.25m below footpath level, with medieval deposits at a depth of 0.45m. At the rear of the site, as a result of site clearance during demolition, 16th-century deposits were exposed on the ground surface. Medieval deposits were located at depths of 0.2–0.45m below present ground surface. Owing to the rise in ground level from south to north, some of the archaeological deposits were accordingly located 0.2–0.6m above the level of Dyer Street.

On the basis of the archaeological assessment, further archaeological excavation was requested by the National Monuments Service in advance of construction work. Over a period of seven days in July 1997 the archaeological deposits were excavated to the formation level of the concrete raft foundation which had been redesigned in the light of the preliminary investigations. A series of medieval and post-medieval deposits with an overall thickness of 0.3m was removed from the northern half of the site. The excavated material consisted mostly of fills containing habitation refuse, interspersed with dumps of roof slate. The only structures uncovered were two stone-lined cesspits of 18th- or early 19th-century date.

6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Drogheda, Co. Louth