2004:0687 - GALWAY: Market Street, Galway

Pre-development testing was carried out between 18 and 25 August 2004 at Market Street carpark, Galway. The proposed development was located within the archaeological constraint for Galway city (SMR 94:100). The site was previously tested by Dominic Delany (Excavations 1998, No. 251, 98E0243), who found evidence of the medieval town wall along the north-west end of the site and an 18th-century barracks, which later became a school in the early 19th century.

The earliest known feature within the carpark is the medieval town wall, which was uncovered during testing in 1998. It runs north-east/south-west through the site, c. 4m from the north-west site boundary, and was located at 0.9–1.35m below the ground level of that time. The Pictorial Map of Galway, dating to 1651, shows a projecting tower ('Gavia's Tower') on the town wall in this general area, 'Athy Castle' close to the south-west site boundary and a terrace of two-storey buildings fronting onto North Street (Market Street), with large gardens to the rear that extended back to the town wall. In 1749 the Lombard Barracks was built here. This became a school in 1824 (Charity Free School), which was taken over by the Patrician Brothers in 1826 ('Old Mon' National School). A priest's house was built along the Market Street end (south-east) of the site in 1825. The school closed in the 1950s and was demolished in the 1970s. The barracks/school consisted of three ranges of buildings located along three sides of the site with an open garden/courtyard/ schoolyard in the interior.

The testing comprised the excavation (by machine) of five trenches. Trenches A and B were located to ascertain whether any evidence of the medieval buildings fronting onto Market Street survived. Trenches C–E were located at right angles to the three ranges of the barracks/school building. Trench A measured 12.6m long, 1m wide and 0.4–1.3m deep. Trench B measured 13.3m long, 1m wide and 0.62–1.1m deep. Trench C measured 9.05m long, 0.95–1m wide and 0.6–1.6m deep. Trench D measured 8.3m long, 1m wide and 0.25–2.94m deep. Trench E measured 9.5m long, 0.86–0.98m wide and 0.4–1.84m deep.

All the evidence uncovered dated to the barracks and later school periods of activity at the site. Five walls and wall foundations uncovered in all trenches appeared to be the enclosing walls of the barracks/school. All were of similar dimensions (0.8–0.9m wide) and construction. Cobbles uncovered in four of the trenches were located outside the walls and represented a cobbled yard found in the area enclosed by the three ranges of barracks/school buildings. A tile floor (in Trench D), stone flag floor (in Trench C) and concrete floors (in Trench A and in Trench D) were the remains of the different floor surfaces within the buildings. The pottery which was recovered and analysed from five of the seven organic deposits uncovered and from three of the five rubble fills uncovered dated from the late 17th to the 20th century.

Testing did not uncover any evidence of medieval activity at the site, nor did it find any surviving structures or buildings at the south-east end of the site that could represent a medieval terrace of houses as shown on the 1651 Pictorial Map. Sterile natural subsoils were revealed in Trenches A and B, while bedrock was visible at 0.85–1.2m below the surface in Trench A, at 0.81–1.05m below the surface in Trench B and at 2.94m below the surface in Trench D.