County: Waterford Site name: DUNGARVAN: Quay Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E1060
Author: Stuart Elder, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 626321m, N 592964m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.087980, -7.615920
A series of foundation trenches were excavated before redevelopment of a former tannery site at Quay Street, Dungarvan. The site was previously tested by John Tierney (Excavations 1997, No. 573, 97E0379), revealing a series of features with a high content of oyster shell. It is clear now, however, that these features were part of a curvilinear ditch feature oriented north-east/south-west and running across the entire site. It was up to 3.5m wide and 1.3m deep, and was found to contain several successive layers of sandy or gravelly sediment. There were also rich, dark greyish brown, humic sediments containing frequent shells of oyster, mussel, cockle and periwinkle, as well as occasional fish bone. Catryn Power uncovered a similar ditch during earlier excavations on the site of the town wall, at the north end of St Augustine (Friary) Street, at its junction with Emmet Street. Here it appears to have had the remains of an earthen bank (Excavations 1989, No. 95).
Work on the site will continue sometime in the next year.
Unit 2F, Dungarvan Business Park, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford
