2000:0637 - ARDEE: O’Carroll Street/Black Ridge/Old Chapel Lane, Louth

A secondary pre-development assessment was undertaken at a 6-acre greenfield site bounded by O’Carroll Street/Black Ridge and Chapel Lane, Ardee, Co. Louth. The proposed development site is located at the north-east corner of the town, within the area of archaeological potential as outlined in the Urban Archaeology Survey of Ardee. The site lies directly along the supposed line of the medieval town wall and is adjacent to the site of Cappock’s Gate at its south-east corner. Excavation of five test-trenches had been undertaken in Stage I (Excavations 1999, 182–3), when a small stretch of masonry wall had been uncovered in Trench 2. The second stage of assessment sought to establish the limits of the masonry remains and associated deposits and features.

An area 12m north–south by 16m was excavated in the south-east corner of the site. A masonry wall, F4, survived 0.5–0.65m below the field surface, measuring 3.12m in length by 0.8m in width and at most 0.35m high. The foundation lay below a deposit of dark brown loam containing finds of post-medieval character. The wall was constructed of tightly set limestone slabs and irregular stones set within a base of fine lime mortar, which overlay stony clay subsoil. A single body sherd of similar type to everted-rim or Leinster cooking ware was recovered from the top of the wall. Traces of the base mortar spread were found intermittently to the east and west of the foundation wall and attest to the removal of the masonry remains in these areas.

Along the southern side of the excavation area several spreads of dark brown soil were revealed, including features F1 and F2 from the Stage I assessment. In particular one large spread, F10, was revealed measuring 2.05m north–south by 1.8m and surviving up to 0.22m in depth. Excavation of F1, F2 and F10 revealed them to be no more than accumulations of post-medieval dumping in natural hollows. This post-medieval material is very similar to F3, which covered and surrounded wall F4.

The dimensions of F4 denote a wall foundation, 0.8m wide (max.), which, though much denuded, appears to have extended as far as the line of the site boundary on the east and, with the associated pottery sherd, suggests a wall associated with the gatehouse structure, Cappock’s Gate. As such, it may represent a trace wall of part of the gatehouse or of a related structure. Agreement was reached to leave undeveloped the area containing the stretch of medieval wall.

15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth