County: Louth Site name: DUNDALK: 17/19 Chapel Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0514
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 705018m, N 807500m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.006042, -6.397930
Testing of a proposed residential development was carried out. The site is within the zone of archaeological potential and is close to the medieval friary of St Leonard's, SMR 7:53B. During construction work in 1911, burials were found near this location, presumably from a cemetery belonging to the friary.
Two trenches were excavated by machine in the area to be disturbed. Both revealed hardcore extending to depths of 0.18–0.3m, below which a brown/black garden soil extended to a depth of 0.5m and contained fragments of red brick and stone. This overlay a stony, grey, sandy soil that probably represented natural subsoil. The garden soil in Trench 1 contained some animal bone, possibly horse bone, and two sherds of black-glazed earthenware. No other finds or features were uncovered.
There was no evidence for human burial in either trench, and it is probable that St Leonard's cemetery was further east of this site.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
