2006:406 - COLERAINE: Bridge Street, Derry

It is proposed to redevelop the site of 5–7 Bridge Street, Coleraine. The works commenced in June 2006 and consisted of monitored test-trenches. During the course of the evaluation, two areas of archaeological interest were identified and subsequently manually excavated.

Area 1, constrained by the presence of standing buildings on three sides of the development area, measured 9m by 14m. Monitoring had revealed the presence of multi-period archaeological remains ranging from the 13th century to modern day in the form of intercutting pits and layers across the area. Twelve pits containing artefacts ranging from the 13th to 19th century were present, along with a medieval ditch, seven archaeological layers containing artefacts dating from the 13th century to 19th century and a well which had been back-filled with modern refuse.

Area 2 was a small area, square in plan located at the far south-west corner of the site c. 0.5m from Bridge Street. It was directly to the west of the basement of the demolished bar. This area contained the remnants of two walls, two stone drains and a possible rubbish pit. The earliest features were the drains, one of which was cut by the ditch in Area 1 along its west edge, and extended north–south. A second stone drain was located 0.05m east of the first, extending north-east/south-west. Both drains were cut directly into naturally occurring subsoil. Drain 2 was cut at its north-east edge by an oval pit.

7–9 Castlereagh Street, Belfast, BT5 4NE