County: Galway Site name: Moore Street, Loughrea
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA105–150 Licence number: 06E0269
Author: Declan Moore, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd (Moore Group), Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Ballybrit, Galway.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 562253m, N 716550m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.198052, -8.564920
Testing was carried out at Moore Street, Loughrea, in March 2006. The proposed development involves the construction of fifteen apartments, conversion of a three-storey dwelling into surgery space and apartments, demolition and reconstruction of a derelict outbuilding to the rear of the dwelling, renovation of a coach house as an apartment with small ground-floor extension, underground car parking, access roads and footpaths, associated site works and services and landscaping to open spaces. The site is located adjacent to the archaeological constraint zone for the town of Loughrea.
Three trenches were excavated. The stratigraphy was roughly similar throughout, consisting of topsoil and sod overlying a varying depth of mixed dark-brown to black humic clay, overlying a loose, mid-brown silty clay with red-brick inclusions over a mottled clay over boulder clay. A ditch measuring c. 3m in width by 2.5–3m in depth was observed in Trench 2.
It was recommended that, should the development proceed, excavation be carried out to further establish the extent of the ditch-type feature and any other associated material.
