County: Laois Site name: PORTLAOISE: James Fintan Lalor Avenue
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0130
Author: Martin Doody
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 646989m, N 698123m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.031722, -7.299447
A test excavation was carried out on the site of a retail development at James Fintan Lalor Avenue, Portlaoise (the late medieval town of Maryborough). The excavation took place on 17 and 18 February 2005. The site is located within the archaeological zone around SMR 13:41, in an area which appears from cartographic evidence to have been close to areas that were occupied during the 16th century.
Five trenches were excavated to the maximum depth of the hardcore fill on which the cross beams of the structures were to be set (no greater than 1m). These consisted of one long north–south trench through the length of the site, with two offsets to the west and a further offset to the east. A fifth trench was excavated in the south-east of the site running parallel to Trench 1.
The trenches indicated that the site appeared to have been relatively undisturbed and was perhaps used as a garden in the past. Apart from possible cultivation features, nothing of archaeological significance was recorded.
New Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
