2004:1481 - ROSCOMMON: Market Yard, Roscommon

Testing in advance of a Tesco supermarket development uncovered a 19th-century stone-built drainage channel covered over by large capping lintels. The side walls of the channel average 0.6m high and are 0.4m apart. Constructed of medium-sized undressed limestone using no mortar, the channel ran for 25m along the west side and 15m along the south, while the area in between had been destroyed some time at the start of the 20th century. There was a well-built waste collection room on the east side of the channel, set at a slightly lower level—this measured 0.7m north-south by 1.3m internally and averaged 0.8m high, though its original floor was replaced by cement and its later use was as a car service pit. This feature was excavated together with much of the overall channel. One stretch of the channel was preserved for 10m along the west and this was sand-filled and paved over in such a way that concrete covers can be raised to view it. In addition, 12m of the west wall of the channel was also retained in situ; a later concrete wall was built as facing on its east side, and the developers inserted five viewing openings through this wall. Some fragments and sherds of 19th-century pottery came from the channel area, with 20th-century pottery from the destroyed part of the channel.