County: Galway Site name: GALWAY: 8 Middle Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E1128
Author: Billy Quinn, ASU Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 529815m, N 725182m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.272324, -9.052219
Monitoring followed by pre-development testing on the site of a proposed development at 8 Middle Street, Galway, was carried out between 15 and 21 November 2001. This project involved the monitored removal of fill down to an original garden, followed by the mechanical excavation of three trial-trenches. The proposed development is located within the zone of archaeological potential for the medieval town of Galway (RMP 94:100).
Initial clearing work, involving the removal of a gravel layer laid down over an old garden, exposed a number of ex situ cut stone fragments and roughly squared stones. The stones, including three arch fragments, a dressed stone block with cross-hatch design and stones with chamfered edges, were removed to a Galway Corporation yard for safekeeping.
The testing programme produced no evidence of in situ archaeological material. All the finds recovered were modern. The evidence from all three trenches suggests that the site had been previously disturbed to natural boulder clay and backfilled with building rubble in the post-medieval/modern period.
Purcell House, Oranmore, Co. Galway
