2004:1354 - TRIM: Market Street, Meath

A total of 158m of trenches was excavated, 2m wide, amounting to 5.6% of the site. Trench 1 was U-shaped and measured 2m wide. The combined length of the three sides was 133m, the eastern side being 48.5m, the northern side 22.5m and the western side 62m. In the eastern part of Trench 1 there was nothing of archaeological interest. The northern side of Trench 1 was parallel to and 8.75m to the north of the River Boyne. There were several features with archaeological potential within the northern side of Trench 1, as follows, working from east to west.

F1 was triangular in plan; it was filled with mid-brown clay with moderately occurring stone and occasional animal bone. It was 12.2–13.4m east of the north-west corner of Trench 1 North and ran into the northern wall of the trench; it appeared to be material dumped or accumulated at the northern edge of a bank of Horizon 3 material, which was a layer of brown sandy clay, 0.4m thick, with occasional charcoal flecks and animal bone. F2 was also triangular, measured 1.5m by 1.3m and ran into the southern wall of the trench; the fill was dark-brown clayey silt with charcoal, animal bone, one sherd of stone ware, one sherd of white-glazed modern pottery, a fragment of burnt bone and an oyster shell. F2 lay south of F1. F4 was a roughly circular deposit of large angular limestone, 1m below the present ground level. It contained animal bone, glass, shell, modern pottery and one sherd of medieval pottery. F7 was a substantial wall which lay beneath F4 in Trench 1 North. The stones were 0.25–0.35m long, 0.1–0.2m thick and there was lime and mortar in the masonry. The wall measured 1.35–1.7m in the trench and the top of the wall was 1m below the present ground level. There were twelve sherds of medieval pottery associated with it. This wall feature ran in a north-south direction into the southern baulk of Trench 1 North; if it continues in this direction it will run beneath the existing bakery building. F5 was visible in the northern section face of the trench, which barely clipped it; it was a wall constructed of substantial angular stone of up to 0.3m by 0.3m by 0.3m mixed with smaller stones. There was some brick in the wall, 1.1m high and 0.7m thick. No datable material was associated with it, but its fabric implied that it was at least used as late as the 19th to 20th centuries. F6 was a stony deposit that occurred in the western part of Trench 1 North and in the northern part of Trench 1 West; it was geological, not archaeological. It consisted of 90% stones and contained four pieces of animal bone and the neck of a glass bottle. Pit F8 measured 1.9m by 0.7m by 0.25m and was rectangular in shape. Its northern limit was clearly defined. It was cut into Horizon 3, a mid-brown silty clay. A sondage put through F8 showed it to have a U-shaped section. The fill contained two sherds of medieval pottery, animal bone, a lump of mortar and occasional charcoal flecks; it occurred 1.36m below the present ground level.

Trench 1 West was 62m long and contained the following features: F9 was subrectangular in shape and measured 2.3m by 1.55m by 0.26m. The fill was dark-brown/black silty clay with occasional small stones. It contained animal bone and oyster shell. F10 measured 1.45m by 1.2m and ran across Trench 1 West in an east-west direction. The top of the feature was 1.3m below ground level. The fill was a mid-brown silty clay with stones. F11 and F12 were either end of a double-lobed pit or two pits. The fill of both features was similar, being a mid-brown silty clay with occasional charcoal. The fill of F11 contained one sherd of medieval pottery. F13 was linear and ran across Trench 1 in an east-west direction. F14 was rectilinear and lay on the western side of Trench 1, running into the western baulk; it was 0.65m long. The fill was mid-brown silty clay, similar to that of F17. F15 was curvilinear; it measured 0.65m by 3.7m and lay on the eastern side of Trench 1 West, running into the eastern baulk. F16 was oval in plan. It measured 1.5m north-south by 1m. The fill was dark-brown silty clay. F17 was oval in shape with a small extension running northward from the main body of the feature; it ran across Trench 1 in an east-west direction. It measured 2.5m in width. The fill was mid-brown silty clay with occasional inclusions of charcoal, oyster shell and two sherds of medieval pottery.

In the southernmost stretch of the western leg of Trench 1 the soil profile was hardcore and surfacing 0.5m deep, black mixed material silty clay matrix with modern and early modern finds 0.6m deep and natural red boulder clay came up at a depth of c. 1m. The southernmost 2m of Trench 1 West were not dug, as the machine could not manoeuvre into the remaining space.

Trench 2 was located in the store of the Centra supermarket. In the eastern end of the trench on its southern side there was a wall, F1, 0.5m wide, which ran for c. 7m in the trench, coming into it at the centre of its eastern side and running obliquely south-west into the southern wall of the trench. It was built of large limestones with mortar and the top of it was 0.5m below the cement floor of the building in which the trench was excavated; this was the maximum depth of the eastern end of the trench, as the excavation could not proceed without removing the wall. There were no artefacts associated, but some early modern glass lay immediately north of the northern face of the wall. There was an early modern ceramic sewage pipe running across the trench in a north-south direction that interrupted F1. F6 was in the northern part of Trench 2 at its eastern end; it was a light-brownish-yellow sandy clay with inclusions of pottery and glass. F5 was a band of angular stone, with no inclusions, which resembles a soak pit fill. F2 was a wall face, which was visible in the northern wall of the trench at its western end. The mortar in F2 contained cement and therefore appeared to be an early modern wall. To the south of F2 were two fills: F3, a mid-brown clayey silt, and F4, a dark-brownish/black clayey silt that contained parts of a bovine animal skull, including the horn, and a sherd of yellow pottery. The trench was dug to a maximum depth of 1.1m at its western end. F3 and F4 were not bottomed. F5 was a wall that ran across the trench from north to south; the top of this wall was 0.4m below the cement floor of the shed. F5 was 0.4m thick and at least 0.45m deep from top to bottom and had no artefacts associated with it.

Trenches 3 and 4 were located in the extreme north of the site, in a yard immediately south of the River Boyne. Trench 3 measured 12m by 2m. The southern 2m were not excavated, as it contained an active service pipe. F1 was a layer of dark-brown silty clay that contained early modern pottery and brick. F2 was a curvilinear deposit of loose dark clayey silt with occasional animal bone. A sondage 0.2m deep, dug by hand, failed to find any pottery or other diagnostic artefacts in this deposit. F3 was a light-orange/brown silty clay matrix with 60% angular stones. F4 was a semicircular setting of stones 0.75m in diameter. The stones had a red/brown clay deposit on them, which was probably heat-affected clay. In the semicircular interior of the stone circle there was a deposit of lime mortar containing charcoal. This stone feature represents an installation that used to heat a kiln or a chimney; no artefacts were associated with it.

Trench 4 was located at the eastern end of the yard, but it was not possible to dig all of it as the centre of the trench was the entrance to an active business premises. Throughout the trench there was cement to a depth of 0.5m. At the northernmost 3m of Trench 4 there was dark-brown clayey silt with occasional charcoal chunks, which contained one sherd of medieval pottery and no modern finds. It was therefore interpreted as an archaeological deposit and machine work ceased at 0.7m below the cement surface of the yard. An attempt was made to excavate the southernmost 2m of Trench 4, but the cement there was impenetrable to the machine.

The site is located in Trim town in an area of high archaeological potential, according to cartographic and historical evidence and also archaeological work in the town in recent years. The testing revealed in Trench 1 North a wall fragment, F7, which is apparently medieval in date, and several deposits, namely F8, F11 and F17, that contained medieval pottery. The wall fragment ran southwards out of the trench in the direction of the outbuildings of the former Spicer's building. Features in Trenches 2, 3 and 4 were not confirmed by their contents to be archaeological, so they require further investigation to establish their age and nature.

Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath