2000:1126 - TALLAGHT: Main Street, Dublin

The site is oriented generally east-west and is located at the junction, on the western side of Main Street, Tallaght and within the zone of archaeological potential for Tallaght Village. It is set back from the line on the limestone-built Irish Nationwide Building Society Building, located to its immediate south, but is generally following the north-south line of the modern streetscape. The survey and excavation took place from the 20/03/2000 for one week and from 21/08/2000 to the 25/08/2000. The site was covered in modern rubble from the recently knocked premises when survey and excavation began; modern trenches for walls and piping crisscrossed the site.

Three cess pits, in what would have been the location of the rear yard of the knocked building, set in a north-south line in close proximity to each other, were identified. One contained a silver cigarette paper, indicating their use in relatively modern times, perhaps in the 1950s/1960s. A shallow ditch feature cut into the natural soil, 1–1.5m wide and 0.5m deep, is of possible archaeological interest, and is present along the entire southern edge of the site, co-terminus with the modern east-west running property division between the Building Society next door and the Macari property. A pointed and mortared structure, possibly a 19th-century garden feature, was also present.

A shallow pit, 0.4m wide and 0.3m deep, containing a medieval roof tile fragment and oyster shell, was excavated. This was the only medieval element present. A short stretch of trench was present which resembled a medieval slot trench in width and depth. It contained black coloured soil. It was truncated and cut through by modern trenching and there was not enough present to indicate a date or function, nor were there finds which might indicate a date.

Letterard, Cashel, County Galway