County: Meath Site name: TRIM: Haggard Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 36:48 Licence number: 01E0881
Author: Matt Mossop, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 680203m, N 757121m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.557873, -6.789474
Situated at the south end of Haggard Street on the west side, the site lies within the medieval borough of Trim. Following the demolition of a single-storey terraced cottage, groundworks for a proposed restaurant and apartment building were monitored.
The footprint foundation trenches were excavated down to the natural orange boulder clay. This revealed a cobbled street immediately beneath the modern concrete pavement, abutting the cottage foundations to the east, and a layer of loose mid-dark brown sandy clay with modern inclusions. This sandy clay varied from 0.2m thick at the north end of the site to 0.65m thick at the south end, levelling the natural slope. Beneath this, two modern, boulder-filled pits were cut into the natural. One of these was oval, 3.5m by 2.5m by 1.3m deep. A semicircular portion of the other was excavated; it was 2.4m by 1m by 0.25m deep.
In the extreme south-east corner of the site, a layer of black, organic silt with a lens of redeposited orange boulder clay was visible in section, up to 0.3m thick, beneath the sandy clay. It yielded three sherds of medieval pottery and lay 0.8m below the present street, directly on the natural. It extended for 1.5m north–south beneath the present street and for 3.9m east–west, beneath the next-door cottage to the south. No further features were recorded and no further work was recommended.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
