1998:247 - GALWAY: 5–7 Eyre Street, Galway

Archaeological test excavation was undertaken in advance of a proposed residential and commercial development in response to a condition of planning. The site comprises two adjoining properties, which lie c. 50m outside the north bastion of the medieval walled town. A building survey was undertaken before demolition. The property at 6–7 Eyre Street contained a derelict two-storey dwelling-house, which was in a very unstable condition. Galway Corporation had placed a demolition order on the building some years ago. The property at 5 Eyre Street contained a large three-storey 19th-century house, which had a fine doorway fronting onto Eyre Street. Several medieval stones, including a decorated window spandrel, were retrieved during monitoring of demolition works at these sites.

Two test-trenches (16.5m north-south) were excavated at 6–7 Eyre Street on 16 and 23 May 1998. The stratigraphy was best preserved at the north end of Trench 1, where a deep, silty clay deposit overlay a compacted, grey, medium sand and gravel. The silty clay deposit was cut by an 18th-century clay-lined pit (2.7m north-south), which contained frequent inclusions of brick, slate, red earthenware roof tile fragments, animal bone, shell (mainly oyster) and occasional pottery sherds and glass fragments. The sand and gravel deposit yielded a couple of post-medieval finds and may represent the remains of an east-west watercourse. The natural, yellowish/brown clay was encountered at 1.5m.

A single test-trench was excavated at 5 Eyre Street on 20 June 1998. A substantial wall face formed the east edge of the trench at the south end of the site. The wall face extended north-south and was a two-phase structure. The upper wall face (height 0.35m) was built of randomly coursed, rounded and angular cobbles and was built directly on top of a wall face (height 1.2m) composed of roughly coursed, large, unhewn limestone and occasional migmatite boulders. This wall face rested on a foundation of rounded boulders, which formed a rough plinth at its base. The ground was almost entirely composed of redeposited soils. A sterile, dark brown, silty clay deposit was encountered at 1.85m below the existing ground level, and outcrops of bedrock were encountered at a depth of 2m.

Substantial remains of a large 19th-century stone-arched 'cellar' were encountered under the site of the demolished house at the north end of the site. The walls were faced with rubble limestone masonry, and the arch is built of roughly hewn, rectangular, limestone blocks. The arch was in very poor condition and collapsed upon exposure. A disused modern sewer pipe was encountered at the base of the trench.

31 Ashbrook, Oranmore, Co. Galway