County: Galway Site name: GALWAY: Abbeygate Street Upper
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 94:100 Licence number: 01E0228
Author: Anne Carey, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: Pit and Building
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 529777m, N 725335m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.273693, -9.052822
Three trial-trenches were excavated by mechanical excavator within the site of the proposed development. There were features of archaeological interest in all three trenches. Four pits, three of which yielded post-medieval artefacts, were discovered. Two pits found in the second trench were large, and one had a rough stone lining around the south-western side. Of further archaeological interest were stone and mortar features found in Trench 3. Given the depth of these features, they may have formed part of a foundation for an earlier building on the site. A pit in Trench 3, which yielded post-medieval pottery, might have breached the mortared features, which tentatively suggests an earlier date for the features. Existing evidence for archaeological activity within the proposed basement area was found in an earlier excavation by Dominic Delaney (Excavations 1998, No. 239, 98E0154), where medieval deposits were revealed at the southern end of this area, in his Trench 4.
Further archaeological work was recommended at the site to establish the nature and extent of the pits and the mortared features exposed during the trial-trenching.
Purcell House, Oranmore, Co. Galway
