2005:1691 - ARKLOW: Bridgewater Centre, North Quay, Wicklow

The development site, ten acres of derelict quayside, was located along the north quay of the River Avoca, which flows through the town of Arklow. The western portion of the site is located within the zone of archaeological potential identified for Arklow town.

The name ‘Arklow’ is of Norse origin. An isolated 10th-century Viking grave was discovered near Arklow, containing a pair of oval brooches, the type of jewellery indicative of a female burial (Grogan and Kilfeather 1997, 39; O’Floinn 1998, 144). In AD 1185 the manor of Arklow was granted to Theobald FitzWalter by King John and may have been settled soon afterwards. The only surviving portion of the medieval town is the street patterns (south side of the Avoca River) and a portion of the castle. The probable site of a Cistercian abbey, granted by Theobold Walter to the Cistercians of Furness, is located within close proximity to the north-west of the site of the proposed development (Grogan and Kilfeather 1997, 123 (No. 828)). Human skeletons in what appear to have been lintelled graves or long cists were found on the site prior to 1927. No archaeological features were encountered during the monitoring of a feeder gas pipeline at the South Quay by Redmond Tobin (Excavations 2001, No. 1383, 00E0826 and 00E0891), where 1.6m of infill below the road surface, composed of sand, course gravel and pockets of large cobbles and clay, was recorded.

The monitoring of the groundworks associated with the development of a 60,000m2 mixed use development took place on 27 June and 8 July 2005. The topsoil was mechanically stripped and was drawn off-site prior to the subsequent raising of the site by c. 1.5m to form a working platform from which the site could be piled. The topsoil was shallow, with an average depth of 0.15m. The topsoil at the eastern and southern portions of the site directly overlay disturbed clay which contained a high proportion of 20th-century refuse, including many ceramics from the nearby pottery works in the town. The topsoil at the northern and western portion of the site directly overlay sand. The site consisted of a sand bank that ran diagonally across the site. The excavation for an access road at the northern side of the site was monitored and revealed that the refuse deposits were in excess of 2m deep. The monitoring revealed that no features or strata of archaeological significance were present on the site.

References
Grogan, E. and Kilfeather, A. 1997 Archaeological inventory of County Wicklow. Dublin.
Ó Floinn, R. 1998 The archaeology of the early Viking Age in Ireland. In H.B. Clarke, M. Ní Mhaonaigh and R. O Floinn (eds.), Ireland and Scandinavia in the early Viking Age. Dublin.

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