2001:1121 - ROSCOMMON: Abbey Hotel, Roscommon

The Abbey Hotel, as the name might suggest, is located close to the site of the Dominican friary. The substantial remains of the 12th-century foundation lie some 75m to the east of the hotel complex, the area between consisting of unimproved grassland. The site of the original Abbey House would appear to occupy an area of locally high ground which slopes down towards the site of the friary and the low-lying marshy ground beyond. Over the years Abbey House has been added to as the hotel developed. These additions, with the exception of a conference room to the south, have been constructed to the north (kitchens, stores and function rooms) and to the north-east (a bedroom block). The present proposal envisages a further building to the north, incorporating function rooms and bedrooms and additional car-parking facilities at the extreme northern end of the hotel grounds.

Six test-trenches were excavated across the area of the proposed development, three along the perimeter of the hotel extension and three across the carpark. The hotel extension trenches revealed that natural boulder clay sloped from west to east across the site, which had been levelled up with the excavated material from previous hotel developments. Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered. Similarly substantial depths of overburden were uncovered within the three trenches excavated across the carpark. Nothing of significance was uncovered here either; however, the form of carpark construction will mean that neither the carpark nor its associated services will impact on subsoil in this area of the development.

Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ