County: Meath Site name: TRIM: Castle Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 36:28 Licence number: 99E0659
Author: Clare Mullins
Site type: Town defences
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 679715m, N 756516m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.552513, -6.796990
Test-trenching was carried out in December 1999 at a site in Castle Street, Trim, in response to a condition of planning. Planning permission had been granted for the construction of a doctor's surgery and apartments on a site behind the rear garden of the southernmost of a row of two-storey cottages that front on to the western side of Castle Street, on a patch of land known locally as the 'nuns' garden'. Trim Castle is directly opposite this property, on the other side of the street, and the medieval town wall delineates the northern site boundary of the proposed development site. Three test-trenches were inserted over the proposed development site, positioned to examine the stratigraphy within the area of greatest impact from the development.
A layer of organic material was found to exist at a fairly constant level of c. 0.8–1m beneath the present ground surface, over the area of the proposed development site. Where tested, this organic horizon was found to continue for a further 0.7–1m in depth and appeared to rest upon the natural geological deposits, which occurred at 1.5–2m beneath the present ground surface. It is highly probable that some further variation in the absolute levels of these deposits exists in the untested areas of the site. This organic material was overlain in the main by a deep topsoil horizon that showed some evidence of modern disturbance.
This organic layer is considered to be of probable archaeological origin, and, while no evidence of structural features was discernible within it, it is thought highly likely that such structural information is contained within its depth. While there was a notable paucity of the usual inclusions found within medieval deposits and a total failure to recover datable artefacts such as pottery sherds, this situation is not without parallel in other medieval deposits.
The use of a piled foundation structure with specified restrictions was recommended in mitigation of the impact of the development on the archaeological potential of the site.
31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare
