County: Louth Site name: DROGHEDA: Sienna Convent, Chord Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 24:41 Licence number: 97E0149
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 710190m, N 775935m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.721436, -6.330401
Archaeological assessment of a proposed residential development took place at Sienna Convent, Chord Road, Moneymore, Drogheda, Co. Louth. The site lies outside St Laurence's Gate and the medieval town walls. The area may well have been a medieval suburb of the town, and the name 'Chord Road' may apply to a particular trade practised in the area. The road led to the medieval leper hospital of St Laurence.
Fourteen trenches were excavated. Trenches 1, 5, 7, 11 and 13 contained no archaeological features.
Trench 2, in the west garden, revealed yellow/ orange boulder clay at 0.65m deep. Two pits, one medieval and the other of 17th/18th-century date, were cut into the natural.
Trench 3, east of Francis Street, revealed 0.8m of topsoil. Two pits of early post-medieval date were cut into the boulder clay.
Trench 4 was dug perpendicular to Trench 3. Boulder clay was encountered at between 0.7m and 1.2m deep, and a single course of a stone wall running north-south was revealed midway along the trench. While dating is inconclusive, it may be late medieval in construction.
Trench 6, in the south-west of the site, consisted of modern gravel overlying dark brown garden soil to a depth of 0.67m, at which point brown clay loam containing post-medieval pottery was encountered. This overlay a thin layer of light brown clay containing animal bone, which in turn overlay natural boulder clay.
Trench 8, in the eastern area of the site, exposed a layer of dark brown post-medieval clay 0.3m thick underlying topsoil, which in turn overlay boulder clay.
Trenches 9, 10 and 12 encountered post-medieval clay layers at depths of between 0.22m and 0.33m, which ranged from 0.6m to 0.75m thick and overlay natural boulder clay.
Trench 14, in the north-west of the site, revealed a cobbled pathway of 18th/19th-century date underlying topsoil. In the remainder of the trench topsoil overlay post-medieval dark brown clay, which in turn overlay natural boulder clay.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
