1998:638 - WATERFORD: 9 Arundel Square, Waterford

Excavation work at this site was monitored in spring 1998 following an archaeological assessment by Sarah McCutcheon (Excavations 1997, 184–185, 97E137). Construction work had already been amended to avoid the line of the city wall. Unforeseen work underpinning the wall of an adjacent property, however, necessitated further testing on the line of the wall. Its remains were uncovered running north-east/south-west along the eastern boundary of the site. It was possible to avoid underpinning on the line of the wall. All archaeological features encountered during the monitoring were excavated by hand and archaeologically recorded.

At the eastern end of the site the remains of a sill-beam house fronting onto Arundel Square were uncovered. It was at least 7.3m long east-west, but only 1m of its north-south extent was exposed. The pottery found may indicate a late 12th-century date for this structure, but this occurred in such small amounts across the site that any dating can only be tentative (Clare McCutcheon, pers. comm.) To the rear of the building a backyard extended west for at least 10m, and there was evidence of some small structures within the yard.

At some stage in the later 12th or early 13th century a defensive clay bank was erected above the backyard. This extended roughly north-south across the western end of the site close to the line of the later city wall. It was constructed of a mix of clays, silts and deposits of occupation debris. It had a maximum excavated width of 7.64m but was probably at least 1-2m wider. It survived to a maximum estimated height of 1.4m above the occupation debris and sloped downwards from west to east. Three sherds of Ham Green cooking ware (early 12th/mid-13th century) were recovered from a clay layer that may have formed part of this bank.

The bank gradually went out of use and was partly covered by backyard occupation debris and cut by small pits. These apparently belonged to a second level of house building fronting onto Arundel Square. Small amounts of pottery associated with these layers again suggest a date in the late 12th or early 13th century.

Around this time a defensive stone wall was built into the bank clays 17.5m west of the modern street frontage on Arundel Square. An Inquisition of 1224 mentions an Arundel Gate on the city defences sited on Arundel Lane north of the site (Nicholls 1972, 109).

The wall extended north-south for 2.8m, where a post-medieval trench cut through it. It was constructed of rough-coursed limestone blocks measuring between 0.2m and 0.6m wide. These were bonded with yellow clay and decayed mortar.

The wall was 0.8m wide but was cut to the east by a post-medieval cellar. Its basal levels could not be excavated owing to water seepage, but it was exposed to a height of five courses (0.8m), where it was truncated by later cellars.

A stone-lined cesspit was also set into the remains of the bank. This pit went out of use and was backfilled some time in the mid-13th to early 14th century. Later a stone wall was erected along its eastern edge.

Reference
Nicholls, K. 1972 Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages. Dublin.

The Mile Post, Waterford