County: Meath Site name: TRIM: Abbey Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0556
Author: Matthew Seaver, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 680163m, N 756921m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.556083, -6.790129
Archaeological assessment took place at Abbey Lane, Trim, Co. Meath. The site is close to two late medieval buildings and may have been within the precinct of St Mary's Abbey, founded in the 13th century. Four trenches were excavated.
Trench 1 was 17.4m long and 1.6m wide. A layer of light brown loam containing 19th-century pottery was encountered at the east end and underlay sod up to 0.42m thick. This overlay natural gravel. At the west end of the trench a layer of light brown clay, 0.22m thick, overlay a dark brown loam containing medieval pottery and fragmented shell. At 7.6m from the western corner of the trench sod overlay a layer of grey/brown, sandy clay containing an early post-medieval pantile fragment, which in turn overlay a substantial clay-bonded stone wall up to 0.9m high, with a rubble core. A roughly built stone wall/ foundation ran eastwards from this for 2.98m and overlay natural, orange boulder clay at 57.25m OD. A layer of rubble overlay this. A small area of reddened clay was visible overlying natural in the southern section.
Trench 2 was excavated south of Trench 1 and was 18.6m long and 1.5m wide. The sod was up to 0.22m thick. Underlying this was a layer of dark brown, soft loam. This layer contained oyster shell, large quantities of animal bone, occasional charcoal fragments and medieval pottery. It was excavated up to a depth of 0.6m.
Trench 3 was dug close to the eastern boundary, running north-south, and was 15.2m long and 1m wide. A layer of sod up to 0.28m thick was removed. This overlay a layer of rich, dark brown loam containing oyster shell, a large percentage of animal bone, occasional small charcoal fragments, fragments of late medieval and early post-medieval pottery and a small fragment of a clay pipe stem. Owing to the similarity of this deposit to those encountered in Trenches 2 and 3, a small portion of the trench was dug to 2m below the sod. More medieval pottery was recovered with no differentiation in this layer. At 1.7m below the sod a layer of orange/brown, silty loam was encountered. This layer contained no significant inclusions and yielded sherds of medieval and post-medieval date and a brick fragment. Boulder clay was encountered at 2.01m below the sod.
Trench 4 was dug at a right angle to Trench 3 and was 35.8m long running towards the laneway at the west. After stripping of sod up to 0.29m deep a layer of dark brown loam was encountered. This was identical in composition to that encountered in the other trenches and contained mostly medieval and a single sherd of post-medieval pottery. To determine a more precise date for this deposit a small portion of the trench was dug to 1.9m below the sod. This revealed a layer of orange-brown silt with no artefacts at 1.67m below the sod. Natural boulder clay was encountered at 1.9m below the sod. The organic layer remained undifferentiated.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
