2002:0730 - GALWAY: 5 and 6 Bridge Street, Galway

Monitoring of piling, groundworks and the removal of a modern wall at Nos 5 and 6 Bridge Street (‘The Lisheen Bar’), Galway, was carried out between 11 January and 17 February 2002. Monitoring was requested after the submission of a report on pre-development testing at the site carried out in December 2001 (Excavations 2001, No. 504). The groundworks related to a new basement, the excavation for which covered most of the area of the site and extended to a depth of 3.5m.

The stratigraphy encountered was a concrete floor, up to 0.2m thick, below which was rubble fill, 0.8–1.5m thick. Within the rubble fill was a small area of cobbles. Below the rubble fill was a soft, dark brown/black, friable soil that contained oyster shell, animal-bone fragments and charcoal flecks and was 0.7–1m thick. Below this soil was firm, blue/grey clay (marl) with frequent stone inclusions. Bedrock was visible in places around the site, noticeably at the northern end of No. 6. The water level was at 2.4m below the surface, making visibility impossible below that level.

The rubble fill produced modern artefacts. The soft, dark brown/black, friable soil with shell and animal-bone inclusions contained modern pottery sherds and one sherd of Saintonge ware.

An area measuring 4.5m by 5m to the rear of No. 4 Bridge Street, adjoining the site, was reduced by 1.3m to accommodate a crane. The stratigraphy here consisted of rubble fill, 0.9m thick, above soft, dark brown/black, friable soil with occasional shell inclusions. Along the southern boundary of this area and exposed by the excavation was a boundary wall that continued across the southern boundary of Nos 5 and 6. It was constructed of three courses of regularly coursed, mortared rubble above a loose rubble foundation. This wall was of the same construction as the party wall between Nos 6 and 7 and remained unaltered by the proposed development.

The wall to be removed was revealed during testing. It was constructed of roughly coursed, mortared rubble and was tied into the party wall between Nos 6 and 7 Bridge Street at its west-south-west end and into the rear wall of No. 6 Bridge Street at its north-north-west end. The first section measured 2.05m east-north-east/west-south-west by 0.7m and was 1m high. The wall then turned north-north-west/south-south-east for 2.57m, toward the rear wall of No. 6, and was 0.55m wide and 0.85m high. The wall had an internal face only and was of three to four courses. It contained one feature, a creep, 0.38m wide, 0.5–0.56m high and 0.7m deep. It was capped by a roughly hewn limestone block. The wall was within the soft, dark brown/black, friable soil, with redeposited grey clay around its exterior.

The wall was contemporary with the recently demolished 18th-/19th-century building on the site. The small area of cobbles and the boundary wall to the rear of Nos 4, 5 and 6 were also contemporary with the recently demolished building. The rubble fills yielded modern artefacts. The modern pottery sherds and one sherd of medieval pottery recovered from the soft, dark brown/black, friable layer confirmed the disturbed nature of this layer, thought to be the remains of a fill that originated in the construction of the docks in the 19th century. The blue/grey clay was natural subsoil.