1998:454 - DUNDALK: Laurels Road, Louth

The site consists of an area of cleared ground measuring 26m east-west by 19m, on the north side of Laurels Road, a side street running west from Church Street, which was on the axis of the main street of the medieval town. The exact date of the foundation of Dundalk is unclear, but there is evidence of a developing town in the second quarter of the 13th century.

Laurels Road as a public street dates to the first half of the 20th century; previously it was an entranceway to the demesne of the Clanbrassil Estate. On the OS 6-inch map of 1836 there are buildings along the northern and western perimeters of the site. The building on the western edge of the site was a five-storey grain store, demolished fifteen to twenty years ago.

Five trenches were dug using a mechanical digger and hand-excavation where necessary. The depths of the deposits were measured from the existing ground surface. Demolition rubble overlay the whole site to a maximum depth of 0.75m, bringing the site to the level of the present-day footpath. Beneath this on the western side was a solid concrete floor, visible in Trenches 1 and 2, a foundation wall for the grain store, visible in Trench 3, and a cobbled surface, visible in Trench 5. This cobbled surface was found to occur in Trenches 2, 4 and 5 and was associated with the grain store. Various fills associated with this phase of activity occurred beneath the level of the cobbles, and all were lying on a garden soil that varied from dark greyish-brown to greyish-brown to a grey, friable soil.

The test-trenches show that the old floor levels of the demolished buildings, concrete and cobbles, were at a lower level than the existing level of Laurels Road. This drop in level is still apparent in a yard to the east of the site. Foundation material and rubble fills are present to depths of 0.9–1.65m and everywhere overlie a greyish-brown soil of reasonably homogeneous appearance. The sparse datable finds recovered from the dark soil are of medieval to early 19th-century date. Two medieval pottery sherds from Trench 1 were at the same level as a clay pipe stem. The wide date range of the finds would be consistent with a garden soil. The grain store is shown on the 1836 OS 6-inch map but does not feature on the 1785 Clanbrassil estate map. The site was apparently open garden before the construction of the store sometime around the turn of the 19th century.

Finds included medieval local ware, tin-glazed earthenware, fragments of clay pipe, a fragment of a 17th-century roof ridge-tile and a body sherd and attached handle of a skillet of North Devon gravel-free ware, late 17th-century in date.