2004:1085 - DROGHEDA: Old Mart, Magdalene Street, Louth

Area 2 of this site was excavated by Eoin Halpin under an extension of the Area 1 licence held by Caroline Powell. A number of features of medieval and post-medieval date were excavated between June and November 2004.

The earliest phase of archaeological activity on the site was represented by an east-west-aligned ditch and associated features in the north-west of Area 2. The broadly V-shaped ditch extended between the west and east limits of excavation. A human mandible was recovered from the silty basal fill of the ditch, while the upper fills were charcoal-rich silty clays, which produced large amounts of 13th/14th-century pottery. The remains of a possible palisade slot and bank material were found on the south-east side of the ditch.

The subsequent phase of activity was represented by a pottery kiln and other features possibly associated with pottery production. The kiln was aligned broadly east-west and was double-flued with a stoking hole at either end and an oval-shaped firing chamber with a raised central platform. Both the firing chamber and flues had a compact fired clay lining and were filled with a silty clay, which produced several sherds of 13th/14th-century pottery as well as fragments of kiln furniture and medieval roof tiles. A linear feature which ran parallel to the north edge of the kiln may have been a drainage gully to keep the kiln area well drained. A number of intercutting sub-square straight-sided pits of varying depths, clustered in two distinct groupings in the south-east of the site, may have functioned as clay preparation or settling pits. Six roughly circular-shaped pits with straight sides and flat bases which ran in a broad arc from the north-west to the southeast of the site may have been clay-extraction pits. A number of other features in the kiln’s vicinity functioned as rake-out/kiln waste dumps.

The west end of the site to the south of the ditch was dominated by a large number of irregular-shaped pits of varying sizes and indeterminate function, which do not appear to be associated with the production of pottery and may post-date the kiln activity on the site. These features may be broadly contemporary with a substantial east-west-aligned linear feature that cuts the southern edge of the kiln and a number of clay preparation pits in the southeast of the site.

These 12th–14th-century features were sealed by a soil horizon that was deposited throughout the site. This was composed of a mid-brown silty clay, which was up to 1m thick in places. A number of late medieval and early post-medieval pottery sherds were recovered from this context, which has been interpreted as garden soil.

This garden soil was in turn cut by several features of apparent 17th–19th-century date. These included a dog burial, a mortared stone-lined shaft, possible garden features and an irregularly shaped pit, over 4.3m deep, which had charcoal- and ash-rich fills that produced frequent clay-pipe fragments.

The remains of two houses of 19th- to early 20th-century date were represented by cellars in the south-east corner of the site which truncated several earlier features. These houses were apparently in use up until the construction of the cattle mart in the 1940s.