County: Kerry Site name: 87 Rock Street, Tralee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KE029–119 Licence number: 06E0982
Author: Laurence Dunne and Karen Buckley, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, 3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry.
Site type: Urban, post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 483445m, N 614713m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.271744, -9.707846
Two test-trenches, as a component part of an archaeological impact assessment, were excavated across the footprint of a proposed single-storey extension at the rear of 87 Rock Street, Tralee. Both trenches were aligned north-west/south-east, measured 1.1.m in width and averaged 1m in depth.
Trench 1 was 13.5m in length and four layers were recorded within it: 0.15m of cobbled surface lying over a dark-brownish-black silty clay, 0.25m in depth, the consolidation layer for the cobbles, while beneath this was 0.2m of mixed rubble, red brick, roof slate in a yellow/orange clay-and-mortar matrix. Stratified below this rubble layer was 0.4m of old topsoil, dark-brown silty clay loam with occasional small sub-rounded stones. All of the layers encountered contained finds consistent with a 19th-century date and had a firm compaction. The subsoil was a mid-yellow firm silty clay, with parent limestone bedrock occasionally protruding from the base. Agricultural activity was evident in the trench in the form of a stone-lined drain and a north–south plough furrow.
Trench 2 was 13m in length with identical stratigraphy, including the stone-lined drain and plough furrow, to Trench 1. However, two subcircular intercutting pits were found at the base of the trench adjacent to, and internal to, a 19th-century garden dividing wall. The earlier of the pits, Pit 1, was revealed beneath the wall and old topsoil layer, and extended from the wall for 0.6m south-east and 0.58m south-west in the trench. The pit also extended beneath the north-east baulk of the trench. Filled with a single sterile mid-greyish-brown firm silty clay, the pit also contained occasional small pieces of limestone at the base. No artefacts were recovered.
Pit 2 partially cut Pit 1. The north-west and south-east extent of the pit was revealed in the trench, whilst it continued beneath the baulk in the north-east and south-west. Filled with a dark-brown firm silty clay with moderate flecks of charcoal, the pit also had inclusions of occasional red-brick fragments. White-glazed ceramics consistent with a 19th-century date were also retrieved.
