2003:2243 - TUAM: Abbey Trinity Road, Galway

Two large car-parking areas between the town centre and the N17 road were to accommodate a retail commercial development and multi-storey carpark, and a small part of the site came within the archaeological constraint zone for the medieval town of Tuam. The northern edge of the site is bordered by the River Nanny, now canalised. The original river would have formed a significant flood-plain and the N17 road and some of the buildings on its east and west have been constructed on gravel-covered ground reclaimed from some of the former floodplain. There was no evidence in any of the thirteen test-trenches of archaeology or of any artefacts. There was a fairly uniform topsoil of brown clay covered by a sizeable layer of gravel and rubble which sat on boulder clay. In addition, much of the northern half of the area contained electricity cables, Telecom optic cables and foul- and storm-water piping.