2005:1313 - GREEN STREET, BOYLE, Roscommon

The site of the proposed development is on the east side of Green Street, Boyle, Co. Roscommon. It will involve the demolition of a building known as ‘The Magpie’s Nest’ and the construction of a new building for a combined commercial/residential development. The building to be demolished was the subject of an architectural assessment by Shirley Markley of NWAS and, while it has some interesting features, it has been determined as likely be 18th/19th-century in date. As it appears unlikely that the existing building will now be demolished, testing focused on the area to the north of the building, which will be impacted upon by the proposed new build/extension.
Given the small size of the proposed development and the confined space, a single test-trench measuring 5m north–south by 2m was excavated by machine, extending northwards from the north wall of the existing building. This trench was then widened to 2.6m to fully expose a projecting wall spur. The purpose of the trench was to fully expose a section of the north wall under one of the two internal corbels and to uncover any related subsurface archaeological remains. As the date of the existing building is in question, attempts were made to establish the relationship between the poorly finished, red-brick-dotted external façade and the foundations of the building. On the west side of the original test-trench, the remains of the foundations of a projecting wall, perpendicular to the north-facing wall of the existing building, was revealed 0.25m below the current ground surface. The trench was widened a further 0.6m to the west to fully expose this wall. The wall survives to a height of 0.5m and, like the other wall, rests atop the natural subsoil. The wall is only partially tied into the northern façade of the existing building, with a clear space visible between the two walls.
There were very few differences identified between the external face of the north wall of the existing building and the exposed foundations, apart from the lack of render and the cleaner, freshly excavated look of the latter. However, the depth of the foundations to the east and the west of the projecting wall are different. The foundations to the east are a full 0.1m deeper than either the projecting wall or the foundations to the west, which appear to sit at the same level. In addition, the exposed foundations to the west of the projecting wall have somewhat larger stones, particularly in the bottom course. Again this is similar to the projecting wall, which rests on larger flat stones. While the differences are not stark enough to argue for definite different building phases, it may be possible that the projecting wall and the foundations of the north-facing wall on the existing building are part of an earlier building, the foundations of which were partially reused and incorporated into the existing building. Unfortunately this does not solve the problem of the date of the existing wall or the corbels. One of the corbels is fully visible in the external façade immediately above the original trench, clearly surrounded by red brick and concrete. There is no way the corbel could be directly linked with the possible earlier foundations identified in the test-trench. No definitive evidence of archaeological activity was revealed.