1999:722 - TRIM: Townspark South, Meath

Test-trenching was carried along the route of two ESB duct-trenches between 20 and 23 January 1999. The proposed routes were within the zone of archaeological potential for Trim as identified in the Urban Survey of County Meath. Archaeological deposits discovered during the test-trenching led to further hand-excavation in selected areas and to intensive monitoring along the remainder of the duct trenches.

Duct-trench 1 ran for c. 90m in a south-east direction from Bridge Street, along the bank of the River Boyne, to the location of a proposed substation. Duct-trench 2 was in the north-west of the town. Its point of origin lay 35m from the north-west corner of the town wall. The trench then skirted the outside of the old town wall for a distance of c. 128m, to a point where it met Watergate Street.

Test-trenching
Five trial-trenches were opened along the route of the proposed development. Trenches 1–3 were along Duct-trench 1, and Trenches 4–5 were along Duct-trench 2.

Trench 1 was adjacent to the possible site of the Water Gate, which had been demolished at the turn of the century. It contained a number of archaeological features that could be divided into two phases. The first was the remains of three limestone-built walls. These were sealed by 1.1–1.2m of 19th–20th-century dumped deposits. These walls, while close to the approximate site of the Water Gate, are likely to have been later, perhaps dating to the 19th century. Local sources refer to a number of cattle pens in the area before the construction of the present carpark and swimming pool. It is therefore possible that the walls represent the remains of such a structure.

Trench 2 was roughly 35m west of Trench 1 and ran parallel to the projected line of the town wall. It revealed evidence of in situ archaeological deposits along this part of the proposed development. The first 0.5m of stratigraphy within Trench 2 consisted of episodes of relatively modern dumped material. This material sealed C14 and C17, which contained several sherds of 13th-century pottery, including part of a base of a cooking vessel.

Trenches 3–5 contained nothing of archaeological significance.

Archaeological excavation
The deposits exposed in Trench 2 were excavated between 1 and 5 February. A spread of over 16m of archaeological deposits was exposed extending eastward from the western end of Trench 2. The medieval stratigraphy was 0.5m deep at the base of the duct trench and was sealed by, on average, 0.5m of modern and 18th–19th-century dumped layers. The archaeology, as it survived, appeared to represent a series of medieval dumped deposits. The section face exposed during the excavation of Duct-trench 2 would suggest that these were dumped from west to east.

A shallow gully, C22, which was orientated north-south and was 1.6m wide and 0.61 deep, was recorded. It was filled by the medieval clays C24, C31 and C23 respectively. It is interesting to note that all the medieval deposits were confined to the east of C22, which suggested that it may have acted as some form of boundary defining a property/plot.

To the west of C22, stratigraphy consisted of 0.7m of modern and 18th–19th-century dumped layers overlying the natural clay.

Sixteen metres west of C22 lay another north-south-orientated gully, C27, which was 1.3m wide and 0.49m deep. It cut the natural gravel C28 and was filled by several episodes of silting. C25 was the only deposit that had any associated dating evidence, in the form of one sherd of modern china.

Interpretation of the excavation area toward the centre of Duct-trench 2 was made difficult by the narrowness of the area opened (0.5m) and the fact that, in places, the deposits were not bottomed out, leaving a number of stratigraphic relationships unresolved. Their proximity to the projected line of the old town wall to the south raises the possibility that they were dumped from there or perhaps from the Water Gate to the east.

Monitoring
The monitoring programme was carried out between 27 January and 5 February 1999. No features or deposits of archaeological significance were exposed along the length of Duct-trench 1. Natural geology was not reached within the trench, and the stratigraphy consisted of modern dumped deposits and rubble. No further features or deposits of archaeological significance were exposed along the length of Duct-trench 2 outside the area described above.

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