2005:713 - ABBEY STREET/DOMINICK STREET, TRALEE, Kerry

A second season of testing was undertaken at a proposed development site at Abbey Street/Dominick Street, Tralee, within the core medieval zone of the town. Previous testing was undertaken here in December 2003 (Excavations 2003, No. 840). However, due to the presence of a tree and a memorial monument of an abbey monk, part of the site was not tested. Recent anecdotal evidence suggested that a tomb or human remains had been discovered when the monument was erected in 1987. Following discussions with the relevant authorities, it was decided to undertake further testing. In March 2005, two test-trenches were opened in the vicinity of the modern monument. All ground-opening work was undertaken by mini-track machine. Features were then cleaned down by hand.
Trench 1 was excavated to a maximum depth of 2.5m. The cutting predictably revealed in its upper levels the basal remains of demolished 19th-century houses that had been constructed within an introduced rubble mortary fill. Stratified beneath was an organic layer 1.54m in thickness. This consisted of a dark-brownish-grey silty clay with much shell, occasional bone, clay pipe-stem fragments and a sherd of early 17th-century pottery from Raeren. This layer overlay natural green sandy clay.
Trench 2 was excavated to a maximum depth of 2m. Similar to Trench 1, the uppermost strata comprised modern brick and trunking fill material. Beneath this was a layer of post-medieval build-up comprising brick, mortar and rubble. The basal remains of 19th-century houses were also recorded. Evident along the eastern limits of the cutting was the modern steel reinforced mass concrete base associated with the recent commemorative monument.
Despite anecdotal evidence of the discovery of a tomb/human remains in the vicinity of the memorial monument at Abbey Street/Dominic Street, the results of the testing clearly refuted this. The results of the 2005 testing establish that the archaeology within the site comprises the basal remains of the 19th-century dwellings comprising the demolished southern side of Dominick Street and that these walls were constructed within a 17th-century stratum and also directly on natural sterile clay, as is evidenced from the southernmost limits of Trench 2. The 17th-century stratigraphy is typologically dated by the recovery of a sherd of stoneware pottery from Raeren (present-day Belgium, near the German border) but is an integral part of the stoneware industry in Germany. The rim-sherd is probably from a peasant dance jug or panel jug. Very few are known in Ireland, but part of one was recovered in Cork and another in St Saviour’s, Limerick (McCutcheon 1995, 89–90).
Reference
McCutcheon, C. 1995 The pottery. In M.F. Hurley and C. Sheehan, Excavations at the Dominican Priory St Mary’s of the Isle, 85–97. Cork.