1998:251 - GALWAY: Naughton's CarPark, Market Street, Galway

Test excavation was undertaken in advance of planning between 10 and 19 June 1998. The site lies almost directly opposite the medieval church of St Nicholas and comprises an open rectangular area measuring c. 60m north-west/south-east x 40m. Examination of the 1651 Pictorial Map suggests that the medieval town wall extended across the north-west end of the site. It was also noted that the late medieval townhouse known as 'Athy Castle' may have been close to the south end of the site. The map also depicts a line of dwelling-houses fronting onto North Street (now Market Street), with large rear gardens extending back to the medieval town wall. In 1749 the Lombard Barrack was erected on this site, and the barrack buildings were subsequently reused to house the Patrician Brothers' School, which was founded here in 1826. The site was cleared in the 1970s.

Three test-trenches were excavated. The trenches extended north-west/south-east and averaged 40m long and 1.25m wide. The medieval town wall was encountered at the north-west end of Trenches 1 and 3. It is built of angular migmatite boulders facing a mortared rubble core and is 1.7m thick. Substantial remains of the 18th-century barracks were also uncovered. The barracks appear to have consisted of a main north-west block flanked by opposing wings at the north-east and south-west. The excavated barrack walls are 0.85m thick and are built of coursed, roughly hewn limestone masonry. A late medieval/post-medieval garden soil deposit was encountered at an average depth of 0.45m in all three trenches. It consisted of a grey/brown, silty clay containing moderate inclusions of pebbles, cobbles, mortar, slate, animal and fish bone, shell and flecks of charcoal. Finds from this deposit included post-medieval pottery sherds, glass fragments, clay pipe fragments and occasional medieval pottery sherds.

31 Ashbrook, Oranmore, Co. Galway