County: Galway Site name: GALWAY: 26 Prospect Hill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 94:100 Licence number: 99E0424
Author: Dominic Delany
Site type: Town
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 530091m, N 725552m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.275686, -9.048171
Test excavation was undertaken here, before planning, from 11 to 13 August 1999. The site is on a natural elevation on the north-east side of the town. Prospect Hill was originally called Bóthar Mór, and the anglicised version of the name (Bohermore) is still applied to the general area. It is clear from the name that this was the principal highway leading to the medieval town. The proposed development site appears to be close to the site of St Brigid's Chapel and the adjoining House of Lepers, both of which are shown and named on the 1651 Pictorial Map of Galway. The House of Lepers was originally founded by Thomas Lynch Fitzstephen in 1543 as a hospital for the poor of the town. It was one of many buildings in the east suburbs that were burned by Hugh O'Donnell in 1596, but it was subsequently rebuilt by Revd Francis Kirwan, who also laid the foundations of St Brigid's Church.
The site (40m north-west/south-east by 30m) was cleared of all upstanding buildings and covered with a layer of gravel chippings in 1998. Testing comprised the mechanical excavation of four trenches. The gravel surface generally overlay a layer 0.25m thick of crushed building rubble and redeposited natural. At the west end of the site this rubble layer directly overlay the natural, light brown, clayey sand, but at the east end a greyish-brown, clayey silt deposit was occasionally encountered. This deposit contained moderate inclusions of animal bone, charcoal flecks, and oyster, mussel and winkle shells. Occasional post-medieval pottery sherds were found in this deposit. It had an average thickness of 0.25m and overlay the natural, light brown, clayey sand.
Several post-medieval features were also encountered. These comprised portions of two oval pits (length c. 2m) and three small, round-bottomed pits (1.25–1.75m in diameter). Finds from these features included post-medieval pottery sherds, clay pipe fragments and green glass wine bottle fragments. It was recommended that the site be archaeologically resolved before development.
31 Ashbrook, Oranmore, Co. Galway
