2001:1317 - TAGHMON: Backstreet, Wexford

Test excavation was carried out on 16 October 2001 to determine the impact of a proposed residential development site on 807m2 of former back gardens within the Taghmon zone of archaeological potential. Taghmon is a recognised area of archaeological significance, dating from at least the medieval period (pre-Norman monastic site and a borough), but also has excavated evidence, in work carried out by Clare Mullins, for settlement from the Iron Age (c. 1st–5th century; Excavations 1999, No. 888, 980483). The excavation was to investigate whether any archaeologically significant remains are present on the proposed development site, to examine the age of the standing boundary walls and shed due to be demolished by the development, and to quantify the amount and extent of pre-development disturbance, and where possible the nature of deposits which were removed six years ago.

Six test-trenches, covering c. 20% of the area, were excavated using a mechanical digger with a 2m-wide toothless ditching bucket. Only features which dated from the 18th century or later were revealed. House structures and internal division walls shown on the Ordnance Survey maps had been removed, leaving few or no remains. Two 18th- or 19th-century cesspits were found on the very edges of the site. Clearance of approximately 50% of the site in c. 1995 would appear to have removed stratigraphy from the centre of the site, leaving a thin layer intact on the northern and western margins only; the surviving stratigraphy generally consists of c. 19th-century building debris and garden soil. Test excavations also revealed that the wall and shed to be demolished by the proposed development are 18th/19th-century in date.

It was recommended that if the area beneath the shed, which was not tested, is to be affected by groundworks, monitoring should be carried out.

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