1999:565 - DROGHEDA: 103/104 Duleek Street, Louth

Pre-development testing was carried out on a proposed development site at 103/104 Duleek Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth. The site is opposite Millmount motte and is in the angle of Duleek Street and Mount St Oliver. The ground slopes downwards to the street at the base of the motte. The line of the town wall is known to run beneath the rear boundary wall of both properties, which were immediately inside the wall. The rear gardens of Nos 103/104 Duleek Street would be affected by the proposed development.

Three test-trenches were dug using both a ditching bucket and a clawed bucket in the garden of No. 103 Duleek Street, and the line of the town wall at the rear boundary of this and the adjacent property was examined.

Test-trench 1 was dug to a depth of 1.5m. Beneath the humus was over 1.5m of redeposited material that included modern china, bottles, iron and a sheet of galvanised iron. Lenses of clay were visible, and there was also a lot of clinker and some clay pipes. Medieval pottery was noted from close to the surface, but at 1.5m the soil was more uniform, a dark grey/brown, silty, friable soil similar to garden soil. Here the finds consisted predominantly of some fragments of early (12th-13th-century) medieval pottery, although one fragment of brown-glazed ware was recovered at this level.

Test-trench 2 ran for 25m east-west from the rear of the garden. Yellow boulder clay was uncovered immediately under the sod at the fence, and the humus and topsoil thickened to a depth of 0.4m at the eastern end of the trench. There were few finds, mostly modern glass or china.

Test-trench 3 was placed crossing the west end of Test-trench 1 and ran north-south for a distance of 6m. This was dug to ascertain the natural slope of the subsoil. A distance of 4m separated Test-trenches 1 and 2, and subsoil was not found in Test-trench 1, although it was over 1.5m deep, but occurred at 0.4m in Test-trench 2. The subsoil profile recorded in Test-trench 3 showed that it dropped a total of 1.4m over a distance of 4m and was a maximum of 2.2m below the sod line. The finds recovered were similar to those from Test-trench 1, although they were fewer. Immediately above the line of the subsoil no pottery was recovered but some animal bone (cattle) was noted. There was no evidence for an undisturbed medieval horizon, as the finds continued to be mixed, until the point where they ceased to occur and only bone was present. Clearance of the overburden of vegetation along the boundary fence to the rear of 103 Duleek Street revealed a number of stones of irregular shape. None was fixed in position, and all were sitting directly on subsoil. At most they could be taken to represent the remnant of the rubble core of a wall, as nothing that could be considered to be facing was discerned. A cut into the subsoil was observed to the west of the line of the stones. This was not investigated as it lay outside the properties being developed. It may be some form of ditch, as it did not appear to be natural. Further to the north, where the ground begins to fall away steeply, clearance along the boundary where the ground level inside the garden remained high showed the same kinds of stones, also sitting directly on the subsoil, but again no trace of a clear line or of facing-stones was found. There is a block wall to the rear of No. 104 Duleek Street, and the town wall is believed to run beneath or beside it. Without removing the wall, which may not be necessary to the development, no further investigations could be made.

Test-trenches 1 and 3 produced material indicating that the ground level in this property was considerably raised by the introduction of soil and other fill. There is no definite indication of when such filling commenced, although it clearly continued until relatively recently.

The town wall is completely reduced to the rear of No. 103 and most likely also to the rear of No. 104, although this could only be confirmed by demolishing the existing boundary wall. Local information suggested that there had been cottages running along Mount St Oliver and therefore in the garden of No. 104 Duleek Street. This has not been confirmed by any map or photographic evidence, although small structures are shown on the west side of the town wall at this point on the map of 1861.

Undisturbed in situ archaeology was not uncovered in any of the trenches opened. The original slope of the hill was altered by bringing in fill, but there was no evidence that any stepping of the original surface occurred. This fill contained both medieval and post-medieval material, but nothing of earlier date was noted. However, animal bone did occur at subsoil level.

The map evidence clearly indicates that the street now known as Mount St Oliver is a relatively recent creation, possibly related to the remodelling of Mill Mount during the Napoleonic 'threat'. Thus, during the medieval period the gardens to the rear of Nos 103 and 104 Duleek Street were more than likely also gardens or common ground. In the 1835 manuscript map of Drogheda the town wall is indicated by a heavy line. It is shown as a long, straight line to the rear of Duleek Street, but it is not shown on this map as carrying across the last plot, equivalent to the garden of No. 104, presumably having been demolished when the new street was made.

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