2002:1789 - DUNGARVAN: The Lookout, Quay Street, Waterford

The Lookout, Quay Street, Dungarvan, is a development of townhouses and apartments. The site was formerly occupied by warehouses and structures associated with the now demolished tannery. Stuart Elder monitored the initial groundworks of Phase 1 in 2001 (Excavations 2001, No. 1240). The site had earlier been tested by John Tierney (Excavations 1997, No. 573, 97E0379), revealing modern and post-medieval clay-extraction pits, one of which contained a sherd of medieval pottery. Phases 2 and 3 were monitored in 2002.

Phase 2 was the excavation of the foundations for five townhouses and their enclosing wall along Bath Street, to the south of the development site. These trenches were 1.2m wide and c. 0.9m deep. The topsoil on the site was dark grey/brown, clayey silt 0.2–0.4m deep. The subsoil was mid-brown/orange, clayey silt.

A possible slot or foundation trench of a small medieval structure, cutting the natural, was uncovered in one of the foundation strip trenches. The structure was rectangular and oriented north-west/south-east; most of the south-eastern extent was uncovered in the foundation trench. The feature measured 1.72m north–south externally and 0.84m north–south internally. The fill was homogeneous, consisting of mid-brown/grey, clayey silt with moderate inclusions of periwinkles, seashells, small fragments of burnt bone, charcoal and organics. The feature was 0.3m deep. The cut of the slot-trench was sharp on the south side of the southern and northern trenches and on the west side of the eastern trench. The cut was less sharp on the north side of the northern and southern trenches; it sloped in toward the base at a 30º angle. The break of slope at the bottom of the cut was rounded; the base was flat in the southern trench and slightly rounded in the eastern and northern trenches.

Four sherds of medieval pottery were uncovered during the excavation. Two were base sherds with a dark grey core, a buff-coloured unglazed slip on the interior surface and a patchy mid-green/brown glaze on the exterior surface. This may be Minety-type ware from north Wiltshire, found in Ireland during the 12th and 13th centuries. The other two sherds were of hand-made, unglazed, brown/orange fabric with large and small fragments of quartz temper.

Phase 3 involved the monitoring of nine service trenches associated with the townhouses and apartments. The mechanical excavation of the service trenches exposed a number of post-medieval features. Trench 1 had five pits, all of which contained dark black/brown, silty clay with frequent inclusions of brick, shell and slate. The cuts were similar in morphology and varied from 0.5m long and 0.45m deep to 1.2m long and 0.5m deep. All were circular or subcircular in plan. A wall detected in Trench 1 was of random-rubble limestone bonded with a distinctive, grey, moist lime mortar. A single pit was revealed in Trench 2. It had a similar fill and cut to those in Trench 1 and is probably of post-medieval date. The base of a north-west/south-east-oriented wall was uncovered in the eastern and western section faces of Trench 4. It was a limestone wall bonded with a distinctive, grey, moist lime mortar. The blocks were roughly hewn and measured on average 0.3m by 0.25m by 0.15m. This wall was similar to a number of other walls uncovered on the site.

Trench 6 contained four pits in the north- and south-facing sections. Pit 31 was larger than the others, and the fill differed in that it had a distinctive concentration of stones toward the base. It truncated another pit. Most of the other pits contained similar fills to those recorded in Trench 1, and the cut morphologies were also similar.

The north-facing section of Trench 7 contained the base of a previously demolished wall and a pit, both of which were similar to the features recorded in Trenches 1 and 4. The south-facing section of the trench contained a red-brick wall that was overlain by a layer of rubble and underlain by a layer of trunking, laid down as part of the construction of the wall.

Trench 9 had two walls and a pit in its north-facing section. The fill and cut of the pit were similar to those recorded in Trenches 1, 4 and 7. The wall was also similar in construction to those in the previous trenches, but the boulder may have been part of another wall that was demolished before this phase of construction work began. The inclusions in most of the pits suggest that they were post-medieval and possibly quite modern. No finds of medieval origin were uncovered. None of the walls exposed in the service trenches was substantial, and they are most likely contemporary with the pits.

47 North Main Street, Youghal, Co. Cork