County: Wexford Site name: WEXFORD: Waterloo Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1684
Author: Emmet Stafford, Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 704524m, N 621679m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.336755, -6.466198
Testing at the site of a proposed development at Waterloo Road, Wexford, was undertaken on 28 November 2002. The site, which was previously part of the grounds of the Presentation convent, is within the zone of archaeological potential of Wexford town, outside the line of the medieval walls.
A significant proportion of the site was unavailable for excavation at the time of testing; however, four trenches, covering an area of 56.27m2, were excavated within it. They were positioned along the northern and western boundaries and in the south-western and north-western corners of the site.
Nothing of direct archaeological significance was uncovered during the excavation of Trenches 1, 2 and 4. Undisturbed geology was revealed 1–2m below present ground level. A variety of garden soils and rubble layers were uncovered in the trenches, most notably in Trench 1, the deepest of the three. A linear subsoil-cut feature uncovered in Trench 2 was obscured by an overlying sewer pipe and could not be dated. However, the fill was similar to an overlying deposit that appeared to be post-medieval, representing an old soil horizon. The abundant oyster shells uncovered in Trench 4, though evidence of domestic activity in the vicinity of the site, were at a relatively shallow depth and are likely to be post-medieval.
What appeared to be the fill of a large subsoil-cut feature, C11, was uncovered in Trench 4. In common with Trenches 1 and 2, the variety of services in the area prohibited its full examination. However, it was possible to ascertain that the deposit extended to 2.12m below present ground level in the eastern part of the trench. Although no distinct subsoil edges were encountered, it is likely that the material represents the fill of a large ditch-like feature of archaeological interest, first appearing at a depth of over 1m. The feature appeared to be more than 1.7m wide and presumably ran along the line of the trench in a roughly east–west or south-east/north-west direction.
It is likely that further investigations will be undertaken at this site in 2003.
Unit 4, Enniscorthy Enterprise Centre, Milehouse Road, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford
