County: Galway Site name: LOUGHREA: 'The Sycamores', Main Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0931
Author: Martin Jones, National Roads Design Office
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 562135m, N 716695m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.199343, -8.566712
Testing was carried out in advance of the proposed extension of an existing carpark by Galway County Council. The extension would occupy a former garden at the rear of a 19th-century house known as ‘The Sycamores’. Test-pits were opened by hand at nine locations throughout the garden.
Three distinct topsoil deposits, with a total thickness of between 0.62 and 1.18m, were noted. The deposits were quite compact and contained frequent charcoal flecks, oyster shell, animal bone, glass, occasional metal fragments and pottery. (Most of the pottery was modern, though a small number of late medieval and post-medieval sherds were also found.) The topsoil deposits lay directly above a grey sandy clay containing gravel, pockets of redeposited till, oyster shell and bone. This was interpreted as a possible early topsoil horizon. Directly below this was a yellow-grey sterile till containing small angular stones and bedrock. Several features were noted, including a number of relatively shallow refuse pits and a narrow cut for the insertion of water and electricity pipes. A stone wall with rubble core, oriented north–south, was also found. The full extent could not be determined, but the exposed portion measured 0.5–0.6m in thickness. No date for the wall could be established.
The test-pit nearest the north wall of the garden displayed a more complex stratigraphy. There were layers of fine, water-sorted mud or silt at the base of the pit. This suggests that the northern extremity of the garden may occupy part of the medieval town ditch. A narrow wet ditch today lies immediately beyond the garden wall, but this may once have been a much more substantial cut, now partly backfilled and incorporated into urban gardens in this part of the town.
The testing was conducted by the writer for Galway County Council. The design of the carpark was subsequently amended to avoid further groundbreaking work and thus preserve any archaeological features or deposits in situ.
Galway County Council
