2004:1090 - DROGHEDA: Scotch Hall, Louth

Work on this excavation, funded by Meath County Council, prior to a retail, hotel and residential development, continued into 2004 but was now largely confined to monitoring the digging of pile-cap pits (see Excavations 2003, No. 1239, for the earlier work). A layer of black organic material up to 1m thick extended over much of the area within the town wall. This contained pottery of 13th-century type, along with leather and textile fragments. There were no structural remains within it, and it appeared to be dumped material. Two groups of small wooden piles were excavated. They had probably been supports for a stone wall of uncertain date, of which no trace remained. Parts of four stone walls were excavated: the south-east corner of the mediaeval riverside house excavated the previous year, part of the pre-19th-century quay wall, a substantial foundation wall on the west side of Graves' Lane perpendicular to the line of the wall, the gable wall of the outbuildings backing onto Marsh Road, and the town wall. The portion of the town wall excavated was the last remaining unexcavated part, which had not been accessible in 1993. Most of it had been destroyed during the construction of the grain silos in the 1970s and only a thin layer of rubble foundation remained.

13 Wainsfort Crescent, Dublin 6W, for Valerie J. Keeley