1998:432 - DROGHEDA: Haymarket/John Street, Louth

Test excavation was carried out on a proposed development site in Drogheda in June 1998. The site straddles both sides of the River Boyne, at Haymarket on the north side of the river and at John Street to the south. The purpose of the excavation was to create a surface contour model of the archaeological deposits on the site. Trenches 1–10 were excavated at the Haymarket, Trenches 11–14 at John Street.

The Haymarket site appears to have been crossed by an early (medieval) quay wall, c. 15m inside the present quay wall. Two distinct soil profiles were evident on either side of the wall alignment. Post-medieval garden soil overlying medieval organic deposits was evident in the northern portion of the site, fronting onto Dyer Street (i.e. inside the medieval quay wall). The organic deposits appeared to represent medieval reclamation fill. A deep deposit of post-medieval (17th/18th-century) fill occurred to the south of the medieval quay (i.e. outside it) and inside the present quay wall. The post-medieval deposits appear to represent a second major phase of reclamation behind the existing quay front. The medieval quay wall formed the boundary between these two deposit sequences. The early quay wall appears to be substantially robbed out, and it was difficult to identify during the assessment. However, there was a suggestion of a masonry structure abutting the southern edge of the post-medieval garden soils and medieval organic material in Trench 7.

The successive reclamation of river frontage is a feature of the organisation of medieval towns. It is consistent with the picture emerging from urban excavations, such as those at Essex Street West in Dublin (Simpson, L., Excavations at Essex Street West, Dublin, 1995) and at Wood Quay (Wallace, P., Dublin's Waterfront at Wood Quay: 900–1317, CBA report 1981). A similar sequence of reclamation can be tentatively proposed for the Haymarket site.

The line of the supposed medieval quay structure identified in Trenches 7 and 10 was also evident in the excavation carried out by Donald Murphy (pers. comm.) in 1997 at the foot of Stockwell Street in advance of the Drogheda Main Drainage Scheme. A 'circular structure and wall' were identified at Site B along the Haymarket pipe-run. This circular structure is likely to be the foundations of a mural/quay-front defensive tower on the riverbank. A wall running east from the 'circular structure' is aligned with the medieval quay front identified during this assessment.

At John Street the line of the town wall and ditch bisects the proposed development site. The position of the town wall can be estimated by the superimposition of the 25-inch map (1862) of the town on the existing street plan. The town wall remained intact up to 1837. A large tannery was developed on the site in the middle of the 19th century, when the wall is likely to have been substantially altered. However, the line of the wall remains evident within the tannery (it can be identified on the 1862 OS map). The tannery and any remaining upstanding fragments of the wall were demolished with the construction of the new Drogheda inner relief dual carriageway along John Street.

A substantial wall was uncovered in Trench 12. A circular masonry structure was identified in Trench 11. These features are interpreted as forming portions of the medieval defences of the town. The 'town wall' terminated with a circular tower at its junction with the river. Medieval clays and pits were identified at the eastern end of Trench 12. This activity is likely to be associated with domestic settlement within the town. Organic deposits were identified on the western side of the town wall; these would be consistent with a ditch or moat. A portion of this ditch was uncovered during the excavations carried out in advance of the Drogheda Main Drainage Scheme by Donald Murphy (pers. comm., and see Excavations 1996, 76–7, and Excavations 1997, 127–9).

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin