County: Kerry Site name: 9–10 Denny Street, Tralee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KE029–119 Licence number: 06E0931
Author: Laurence Dunne and Karen Buckley, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, 3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 483595m, N 614323m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.268272, -9.705515
Test-trenches as a component part of an archaeological impact assessment were excavated at a proposed development site at 9–10 Denny Street, Tralee, which was formerly in use as a bank. The site is located within the archaeological zone of the medieval town of Tralee, while the building at 10 Denny Street is a protected structure and has been given a ‘Local’ status by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH). Denny Street, in its entirety, is protected under the NIAH, which has assigned it a ‘Regional’ status.
Spatial considerations within the site meant that the lengths of the trenches were greatly restricted: both trenches measured 1.5m in width.
Trench 1 was excavated to a length of 1.8m and a depth of 1.6m, where the natural subsoil, a firm mid-yellow/orange silty clay, was recorded. Nothing of archaeological significance was recorded in this trench.
Trench 2 was 2.2.m in length and 1.4m in depth. Identical stratigraphy and subsoil to that found in Trench 1 was recorded. At the north-western end of this trench, the foundation courses of the front wall of the original 19th-century coach-house of 9 Denny Street was revealed running north-north-east/south-south-west for an exposed length of 2.65m, while the full width and depth of the wall were 0.4m and 1.35m respectively. The wall was diagonal to the trench and extended south-south-west beneath the western baulk and north-north-east beneath the northern baulk. The coach-house of No. 10 Denny Street can be clearly seen in the first-edition OS map of 1842. The cobbled surface of the interior of the coach-house was also recorded immediately inside, to the west, of the wall.
At the base of the trench, a pit containing much oyster shell in a charcoal-enriched dark-blackish-brown soil matrix was revealed. The pit was situated 0.2m east of the coach-house wall and extended 0.35m from the eastern extent of the trench. Investigation of the pit was limited, due to the narrow confines of the trench, and no date for the feature could be ascertained.
Subsequent monitoring of all ground-disturbance works at the site in December 2006 revealed nothing of archaeological significance.
