1997:437 - TRIM: Trim Courthouse, Castle Street, Meath

Archaeological test excavation was undertaken in advance of a proposed development at Trim Courthouse, Trim, Co. Meath, in April 1997. The earliest evidence for a settlement at Trim occurs during the Early Christian period, when a monastery was founded here by St Loman. There are no surviving pre-Norman remains at Trim, but the Augustinian priory probably occupies the site of the early church. The curving line formed by Navangate Street, High Street and Castle Street suggests that the monastery may have occupied both banks of the river. With the coming of the Normans Trim became the most important manor in the new Lordship of Meath, and it was subsequently the site of the largest medieval castle in the country. The Augustinians, the Dominicans and the Franciscans all established religious houses at Trim. The Franciscan friary stood on the south bank of the river, partly on the site of the present courthouse. It was founded in the early 13th century and was reformed by the Observantines in 1325. The monastery was damaged by floodwaters in 1330. Dissolution documents indicate that it had a watermill nearby. In 1951 burials were found in a cutting nearby in Castle Street.

The site of the proposed extension is situated on the south side of the courthouse. It is an irregular-shaped area with maximum dimensions of 28m east–west and 25m north–south. Two test-trenches were mechanically excavated at the site of the proposed development. The trenching revealed 1–1.5m of modern overburden, mostly rubble from the last phase of demolition at the site. This overlay a deposit of dark greyish-brown silty clay containing occasional cobbles, pebbles, pottery sherds, human bone, slate, mortar, shell and flecks of charcoal and lime. This deposit was 1m deep at the west end of Trench 1 and just 0.45m deep at the west end of Trench 2. It was not fully excavated at the east end of these trenches.

Two possible extended inhumations were encountered in this deposit. The first was represented by a skull which was found 11.5m from the west end of Trench 1, and the second by human bones found 3.25m from the west end of Trench 2. Other bones recovered suggest that part of another burial was removed by the machine at the west end of Trench 1. The trenches were too deep to allow detailed investigation of the possible burials. About twenty pottery sherds were recovered from this silty clay deposit. With the possible exception of one or two sherds all were post-medieval in date.

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