2003:1219 - ARDEE: O'Carroll Street, Louth

Prior to construction of an extension to the Girl Guides premises in O'Carroll Street, Ardee, testing was carried out.

In Trench 1 (9m by 2m), 0.1m of tarmacadam covered 0.15m of hardcore, which was over 0.2m of dark-brown silty clay with a high organic content, containing charcoal flecks and modern and medieval pottery. Under this was 0.26m of brown clayey silt, with inclusions of early modern and medieval pottery, a flint, a piece of medieval tile and animal bone fragments. Natural red-brown boulder clay subsoil with stones came up at 0.75m below ground level in most of the trench.

The trench contained three features. F1 was not archaeological. F2 was a modern pit. F3 was a pit, the top of which was 26.873m OD. The trench was enlarged on its northern side by 1m by 2m to expose its full extent. It was roughly circular in plan, 1.5m in diameter and 0.45m deep, with a gentle U-shaped profile. It contained two fills, a dark-brown organic clay with frequent charcoal flecks and pieces of animal bone, as well as eleven sherds of medieval pottery and four fragments of animal bone, and a lens of black silt 0.2m thick. It appeared to be a medieval refuse pit.

In Trench 2 (7m by 2m), 0.35m of tarmac and hardcore lay over 0.27m of mid-brown clay, which covered 0.27m of red-brown clay subsoil to the floor of the trench. A linear feature crossed the trench at the southern end. F6 was a ditch 0.6m below ground level. It had a gentle U-shaped profile. The fill was a loose grey-brown silty clay containing animal bone and medieval pottery. 3.35m from the southern end of the trench there was a pit-type feature, 1.8m in diameter and 1.3m deep. It contained a mid-brown clay with very occasional charcoal flecks, very occasional animal bone fragments and one sherd of medieval pottery. It ran out of the western wall of the trench.

Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath