2002:1312 - DROGHEDA: 23–25 Dyer Street, Louth

Ground reduction was undertaken in October 2002 before development at 23–25 Dyer Street, Drogheda. The work was done on foot of an architectural assessment by Redmond Tobin and testing by Teresa Bolger (No. 1311, Excavations 2002, 02E0021), as the site was in a zone of archaeological potential (SMR 24:41). The site, measuring c. 27.5m east–west by 16.5m, was on the north side of Dyer Street, near the eastern junction with Shop Street, in an area where previous excavation has revealed significant archaeological deposits.

The top of a stone arch was revealed in the standing wall of the building bordering the site to the north. This arch is likely to represent a large stone culvert, a former basement entry or possibly a relieving arch. The arch and the mortared, roughly dressed lower courses of the wall in which it is situated pre-date a second stone building phase for the building. That second phase in turn pre-dates a phase involving red-brick construction and insertions (of 19th-/early 20th-century date). The arch cuts, and therefore post-dates, the western, clay-bonded wall found on the site and may be post-medieval, although the relieving arch hypothesis may suggest a medieval origin. More precise dating evidence was not recovered. This wall is part of a standing building bordering the site on the north and will not be affected by the development.

Two main archaeological features were unearthed, at 3.72m and 3.44m OD. Both were clay-bonded walls oriented north–south and probably medieval in origin. A comparison of their construction and location with the results of excavations undertaken immediately to the east at the corner of Shop Street and Dyer Street by Donald Murphy (Excavations 1998, No. 439, 98E0229, F62), Tim Coughlan (Excavations 1999, No. 584, 99E0249) and Malachy Conway (Excavations 2000, No. 656, 99E0242, F45) etc. suggests that they may be the remnants of structures or medieval burgage-plot walls extending north from behind the rear walls of former medieval street-fronting buildings. Excavations nearby, on the south side of Dyer Street, indicate that some plot boundaries were demarcated by stone walls from at least the late medieval period (Conway, op. cit.).

Another structure, at the southern end of the eastern wall and at 3.34m OD, was at a similar location with respect to the present course of Dyer Street as a rear wall of a medieval building found during pre-development excavations immediately to the east (Coughlan, op. cit.).

Evidence of stratified archaeological soils immediately beneath the base of formation (3.39m OD) was also discovered. Recommendations for the mitigation of the impact of development on this archaeology were made and incorporated in the subsequent excavation strategy (No. 1311, Excavations 2002). Archaeology identified during ground reduction, and a brief site background, are included there.

In December 2002, after the above excavation of the site, monitoring of piling was undertaken. No significant archaeology was unearthed.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin