1998:257 - LOUGHREA: Church Street, Galway

The test excavation of a site at Church Street, Loughrea, Co. Galway, in advance of its development and in response to a planning condition, was carried out on 21 September 1998. The development consisted of the demolition of an existing modern building on the site and the construction of a townhouse with separate living unit on the ground floor.

The site, which lay within the medieval town founded by Richard de Burgh in the 13th century, was very small, measuring 7.7m east-west by 4.4m, and contained three walls of a modern roofless building.

The single trench, excavated by machine, was orientated east-west and was 7.4m long, 0.8–1.1m wide and 1.2–1.9m deep. It was begun at 0.6m from the interior face of the west wall of the existing building (i.e. the wall facing onto Church Street) and 1.5m from the interior face of the north wall.

The stratigraphy encountered consisted of a concrete floor (50–100mm thick) found over the entire surface of the trench, below which were a rubble-built foundation and a fill. The fill consisted of a soft, grey/brown clay, 0.3–0.7m thick, and was found over the entire length of the trench except where the rubble foundation crossed the trench, at 1.2m from its east end. The rubble foundation was 1m wide and 0.6m thick and was related to the now removed east wall of the modern building on the site. Below the soft clay fill was a dark brown, friable, organic fill within a U-shaped cut, which was 1.6m long and 1.3m thick and lay 1m from the west end of the trench. Boulder clay was found below this cut, at the base of the trench.

The soft clay fill contained a small number of modern artefacts. The organic fill contained occasional to moderate amounts of animal bone fragments, flecks of charcoal, oyster shells, red brick fragments and one clay pipe stem.

The stratigraphy encountered was indicative of modern use of this site.

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