1999:475 - ADARE: Main Street, Limerick

The Adare Main Street Improvements Scheme was processed under Part X of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations, 1994. The work entailed pipe-laying and upgrading the road surface over a length of 480m from the Dunraven Arms Hotel carpark at the eastern end of the village to just beyond the junction for the Askeaton road at the western end of the village. On foot of an archaeological assessment, licensed monitoring, which consisted of a trench through the length of the village, was in place for the first phase of the work (March–May 1999). Archaeological deposits and cut features were recorded in the section of the trench for 260m from the eastern end of the village. When the work recommenced in September 1999, to dig out for the foundation of an improved road surface, archaeological excavation proceeded before the construction. The excavation was carried out in two sections: the northern carriageway (8 weeks, October–December 1999) and the southern carriageway (8 weeks, January–February 2000).

Archaeological deposits survived from the eastern end of the village to a point east of the stream that crosses the Main Street near the centre of the village. The insertion of a stone bridge/culvert in the 19th century had removed all older deposits in this area. West of the stream post-medieval/modern material was recorded between the existing road foundation and the underlying boulder clay or bedrock.

Over the eastern half of the excavation, archaeological layers had been scarped and only isolated pit cuts survived. Towards the centre of the village, deposits up to 0.2–0.3m survived. The earliest feature excavated was a large, stone-lined culvert that traversed the road. The capstone was between 0.86m and 1m below existing ground level. The culvert measured 0.6m x 0.5m internally and was built in a large trench. It was covered by redeposited boulder clay that had been cut by medieval pits. The culvert may have served to direct a water source to the Trinitarian abbey (13th-century foundation).

On the northern side of the main street a variety of materials comprised a road surface that extended for 116m. This was made up of levelled-out bedrock, metalling, rough cobbling and a more formal stone surface. The rough cobbling occurred particularly over the fills of pits that lay beneath the road. The formal stone surface was excavated in the centre of the village and extended for 18m. The stones were set in a clay bedding. An earlier, similar stone surface was recorded beneath, but this was protected and remains undisturbed.

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