2001:1061 - TRIM: Emmet Street, Meath

Two proposed development sites lying astride a proposed new road at the rear of Emmet Street (east side), Townparks South, Trim were assessed in advance of development. The line of the town wall forms the northern boundary of the northern site. Test-trenches were mechanically excavated on the sites on 20 October 2001.

At the southern site two test-trenches revealed bedrock and subsoil at a depth of 0.4m, directly under topsoil.

At the northern site three test-trenches were excavated and revealed the town wall extending along the north side of the site. The top of the wall lay 0.15–0.5m below modern ground level. At the west end of the site the wall revetted the inner side of the medieval town ditch. As a result its outer face descended to 2.4m below modern ground level, while its inner face stood on subsoil 1.5m below modern ground level. The wall extended eastwards into a large, low-lying marshy area. Where it ran into this lower ground the wall was completely free-standing, with deposits of silt and organic material on both its sides. Here the wall stood to a height of 2.4m on both sides.

The wall measured 1.4m in thickness and had a projecting footing 0.3m wide on its inner face.

The wall revetted the inner side of the 14m-wide medieval town ditch. The base of the latter lay at 2.3–2.9m below modern ground level; its top lay at 1.35–1.5m below modern ground level. It was filled with largely sterile water-deposited silt which contained organic material, occasional sherds of medieval pottery, leather, marine shells and twigs, etc. The inner side of the ditch was recut as a 4.5–5m-wide unlined channel in the post-medieval period, probably to act as the tail-race from an adjacent mill.

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