County: Kerry Site name: TRALEE: 5 The Square
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KE029–119 Licence number: 06E0838
Author: Laurence Dunne and Karen Buckley, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 483515m, N 613953m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.264932, -9.706559
Two small test-trenches were excavated at a proposed development site at 5 The Square, Tralee, Co. Kerry, as a component part of an architectural impact assessment. The site is within the medieval zone of Tralee.
Trench 1 was aligned east–west for a length of 6m and 1.2m in width and was excavated to a depth of 1.2m. The remains of a cobbled and flagged surface were recorded immediately beneath the top few centimetres of topsoil, underneath which was modern rubble layer comprised of 90% mottled mid-brown clayey silt/mortar fill with inclusions of red brick, slate and occasional oyster shell. This infill was excavated to a depth of 1.2m to expose the depth of an east–west-oriented wall that was visible on the northern side of the trench.
The east–west wall exposed in the cutting had an overall width of 0.8m, including an outer, partially rendered, single brick coursing face on its southern side. Otherwise, the wall was constructed with rubble limestone bedded in a gritty coarse mortar. The wall was revealed to a depth of 1.2m; its full depth could not be realised due to spatial difficulties of excavation within a very small enclosed rear yard. This wall was identified on the first-edition OS map of 1842 as demarcating the northern side of a laneway which allowed access to the rear of the building from Bridge Street.
Underneath the infill layer on the northern side of the wall, a mid-brown silty clay layer was revealed that contained occasional inclusions of red-brick fragments. Sectioning of the layer revealed a depth of 0.3m, beneath which a potential medieval layer was exposed comprising a moist dark-brown silty clay.
A flagged surface was also revealed on top of the potential medieval layer extending underneath the trench boundary on its western side. The trench could not be excavated further, due to increased safety issues as the trench deepened beside a dangerous wall in a confined space. Consequently, the potential medieval layer was left undisturbed.
Trench 2, excavated internally, was 1.2m in width, aligned east–west for a length of 2.6m and excavated to a depth of 1.6m. Along the northern side of the trench, loose limestone rubble was revealed that acted as a footing (0.2m) for the interior dividing wall against which the cutting abutted. An introduced rubble infill, revealed beneath the concrete and identical to that recorded in Trench 1, was excavated from the cutting to a depth of 0.8m. Underneath this fill layer, a flagged surface was visible extending eastwards from the western side the trench for a length of 0.5m and a depth of 0.1m. Beneath this flagged surface, a mid-brown silty clay layer with a depth of 0.2m was recorded and it too was identical to that recorded in Trench 1. Underneath this mid-brown layer, a wet dark-grey silty clay deposit was exposed, similar in texture and depth to the potential medieval layer in Trench 1. It was investigated to a depth of 0.4m, but could not be further examined due to water ingress.
No artefacts were recovered in either trench.
3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry
