County: Cork Site name: YOUGHAL: Ashe Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 67:29(01, 02) Licence number: 02E0635
Author: Áine Richardson, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 610447m, N 577760m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.951836, -7.848008
Monitoring was carried out on 13 May 2002 at Ashe Street, Youghal, during the excavation of foundation trenches for a single-storey extension to a house. The development site is on the south-west side of the street, overlooking the sea, and is within the medieval walled town. The town wall is c. 50m west of the site. Historical research suggested that the medieval Benedictine ecclesiastical precinct of St John’s Priory may have extended west as far as Ashe Street (Ronayne 1929, 88).
Concrete and crazy-paving surfaces were removed by machine to reveal a layer of gravel, 0.15m thick, and an earlier layer of dark brown/grey garden soil, c 0.6m thick, which contained modern pottery sherds, plastic and aluminium cans. Three foundation trenches were excavated through this layer and into the subsoil, which consisted of light to mid-pink/brown sand. No archaeological remains were uncovered during the development works.
Reference
Ronayne, C.O’L. 1929 History of the earls of Desmond: and earl of Cork and Sir Walter Raleigh in Munster, and a history and guide to the religious and collegiate foundations in Youghal. London and Belfast.
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