2002:0773 - CASTLEGREGORY: Tailor’s Row, Kerry

Test-trenches were excavated before development works at Tailor’s Row, Castlegregory. The proposed development is within the zone of archaeological potential of the site of a castle, SMR 27:8. The castle was possibly built by Gregory Hoare, a tenant-in-chief of the Desmonds (Hayward 1945, 334), most likely in the 16th century. No above-ground remains of the castle survive; however, a number of architectural fragments do, some of which undoubtedly originate from the castle. A number of these fragments, including two inscribed arched sections and a gun-loop, are now set in the wall outside Lynch’s supermarket in Tailor’s Row (formerly Castle Lane), Castlegregory. More fragments, including a dripstone, have been set in the pavement at the carpark to the south-west of the retail unit.

Three L-shaped trenches were mechanically excavated. The first was immediately south-west of the existing retail unit, on the proposed foundations of the extension to this building. The trench was 33m long, 2m wide and up to 1.72m deep. At the lowest level of the trench, cut into the subsoil, were six cultivation furrows. The furrows were oriented north–south, 0.45–0.5m wide and c. 0.05m deep. Two layers were recorded above the natural subsoil. The lower layer was garden soil composed of mid-brown sandy silt. The upper layer was trunking for the carpark and was c. 0.45m deep.

The remaining trenches were positioned on the proposed foundations of four retails units. The trenches had a combined length of 61m and were 2m wide and up to 0.6m deep. The area is used as a secondary carpark and is paved with gravel. Below the sod layer was a layer of mid-brown, sandy silt topsoil that overlay the orange, sandy clay subsoil.

No archaeological artefacts or stratigraphy were recorded.

Reference
Hayward, R. 1945 In the kingdom of Kerry. Dundalk.

3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry