County: Louth Site name: DUNDALK: 30 Church Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0208
Author: Kieran Campbell
Site type: Excavation -miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 704720m, N 807775m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.008572, -6.402378
The site is an enclosed area, 35m by 7.5m, located 45m west of Church Street and was contiguous on the west to the site on Laurels Road (see Excavations 1997, No. 391). The proposed development was a two-storey warehouse which was to occupy the entire area of the site.
Two test-trenches excavated by machine revealed similar results. The site has evidently been an open yard since at least 1836. The surface of the yard was laid on top of a dump of demolition rubble which extended to a depth of 0.85m. Below the rubble were deposits of grey silty clay which were excavated to the limit of excavation at 1.55m below ground surface. These deposits contained animal bones, charcoal and shell, but finds of pottery were very scarce. Two body sherds, one medieval and one of 17th/18th-century date, were recovered from the upper levels of the deposits. The lower deposits were interpreted as garden soils of medieval and early post-medieval date which were sealed below commercial developments in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
The warehouse was constructed on a raft foundation for which excavation to a maximum depth of 0.7m was required.
6 St Ultan's, Laytown, Drogheda, Co. Louth
