County: Laois Site name: OLD GAOL/COURTHOUSE, Portlaoise
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0365
Author: Rob Lynch, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Building
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 647032m, N 698245m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.032812, -7.298793
Archaeological monitoring was carried out in October 1998 on the final phase of ground disturbance works associated with the upgrading of Portlaoise Courthouse and the redevelopment of the old gaol into a new arts centre. The courthouse was built in 1789 and replaced an earlier structure destroyed by fire. The gaol was built at around the same time and remained in use until 1830, from when it functioned as an RIC barracks, until the 1860s. It was converted into a public library in the 1950s.
Two phases of trial-trenching and monitoring preceded this programme of monitoring and were carried out between December 1996 and February 1998 (by Thaddeus Breen, Excavations 1996, 62–3, 96E0277, and Fiona Reilly, No. 370 Excavations 1998). These investigations found the remains of a graveyard in the courtyard of the old gaol, a cobbled surface that pre-dated part of the gaol and the remains of a structure outside its eastern wall.
Five service trenches were excavated as part of the development, three in the courtyard on the eastern side of the courthouse (Trenches 1, 4 and 5) and two outside the eastern wall of the old gaol (Trenches 2 and 3).
Trench 1 (22m long, 1.2m wide) revealed two phases of activity. Phase 1 consisted of a small pit cutting the natural clay at the southern end of the trench, which was filled with organic material containing 18th-century pottery. To the north of Trench 1 a large feature cutting natural was revealed. This was filled with heavy clays containing animal bone and occasional sherds of 18th-century pottery. This feature was cut by a large north-south-orientated limestone wall, 14.85m long, which also extended into Trench 4 (9.77m long, 2.65m wide), to the south.
This feature was one of two walls making up Phase 2; the second was orientated east-west and ran off at a right angle from the first. It is likely that these walls formed part of ancillary structures associated with the courthouse.
To the east of the old gaol Trench 2 (44.2m long, up to 1.7m wide) exposed two phases of archaeological activity. Phase 1 consisted of a large east-west-orientated pit, which extended into Trench 3 to the west, giving it a minimum length of 4.6m. It was 1.87m wide and 0.95m deep. The pit was lined with organic waste and backfilled with heavy clays. It also showed evidence of having been recut. Phase 2 consisted of the remains of a north- south-orientated limestone wall exposed for 4.1m in section, which was abutted by an east-west-orientated wall to the west of it. This wall continued into the adjacent Trench 3, where the remains of a disturbed cobble and flagstone surface were exposed 1.6m to the south of it. These two walls formed part of the boundary wall enclosing the gaol precinct.
To the north of Trench 3 sections of the southern and eastern walls of a previously identified structure were revealed. These walls enclosed the remains of a cobbled surface. The surface was sealed in places by a compact layer of cess and overlay the earlier pit described above. It is likely that this structure functioned as a stable, possibly associated with the RIC barracks.
8 Dungar Terrace, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
