County: Wexford Site name: GOREY: 3–4 McDermot Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WX007-033 Licence number: 05E0338
Author: Emma Devine, for Kilkenny Archaeology
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 715315m, N 659642m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.675661, -6.294763
A pre-planning assessment of a proposed commercial development at McDermot Street, Gorey, was requested. The site is located at the heart of Gorey town. Part of its original planned layout in the 17th century, McDermot Street was known as Mount Street until early in the 19th century. The graveyard located immediately west of the site was also established in the 17th century and contains the grave of Archbishop Ram. Both the first- and second-edition OS maps mark this area as the site of the church rather than a graveyard; it was the parish church of the town and surrounded by a rectangular enclosure. Though the church has now disappeared, it seems that its surrounding enclosure remains intact.
Test-pits 1 and 2 confirmed that the boundaries of the church site have remained intact and the graveyard and its contents are confined within the walls. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted in any of the other test-pits.
It was not possible to investigate beneath the two terraced houses to be demolished, although it is unlikely anything remains there either, as their construction in all probability destroyed any remaining archaeological features and or materials. Further monitoring of all preparatory groundworks at construction stage was recommended.
Threecastles, Co. Kilkenny
