County: Louth Site name: DUNDALK: 13 Church Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LH007-119 Licence number: 04E0284
Author: Paul Stevens, for Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 704744m, N 807940m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.010049, -6.401955
An assessment was carried out on 21 March 2004 at a site to the rear of 13 Church Street, Dundalk. Three test-trenches were excavated for a proposed redevelopment and extension to the rear of a commercial premises. The site is situated in the early 13th-century northern quarter of the medieval town of Dundalk and is located on the site of a medieval lane known as Horstret or Horse Lane, extinguished in the 19th century (Urban Archaeological Survey, ref. 232). Two previous assessments were carried out on either side of this site, by Ian Russell (Excavations 2003, No. 1257, 03E0138) and Tim Coughlan (Excavations 2003, No. 1256, 03E0352).
Test-trenches were mechanically excavated over the available ground-floor area of the yard. The standing building due for demolition as part of this development in the neighbouring property, No. 12, was not tested.
Archaeological features were revealed in Trenches 1 and 2, over the south-western portion of the site. These comprised pits and linear features containing medieval artefacts cutting a partially preserved old ground surface (sandy boulder clay subsoil). The third trench revealed a post-medieval cobbled surface but mostly showed substantial truncation of the northern half of the site by a storm drain and lowering of the ground level by up to 1m by an unknown source.
21 Boyne Business Park, Drogheda, Co. Louth
