2006:1655 - TRIM: 27 High Street, Meath

Monitoring was conducted during groundworks in September on a site at 27 High Street, Trim. Nagle’s Castle, ME036–020, an urban tower-house, is located c. 40m south-east of the site.

Three pits occurred in the foundation trenches. None of the three were visible from the surface and only came to light when the digger bucket had gone through them, when they became visible in section. The first pit had a U-shaped profile, 0.9m deep and 1.1m across at the top. The fills were 0.05m of white ash, 0.05m of small charcoal lumps and then white ashy silt. It was a refuse pit of unknown date. It did not extend to the eastern section of the trench. The second pit occurred in the eastern section face. It measured 1m deep by 1.2m wide at the top and had a U-shaped profile. It was dug into the yellow/brown stony subsoil. The fill was dark-brown silty clay, with inclusions of animal bone and charcoal. No artefacts were recovered from the pit fill. It was a refuse pit of unknown date. The third pit had a U-shaped profile and measured 1.3m wide at the top by 1.05m deep. The fill was grey/brown silty clay with moderately occurring inclusions of charcoal pieces and bone fragments. Six sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from the fill. F2 was also visible in the western section face of the trench. Here it measured 2.1m wide at the top by 1.1m deep. The lower fill was black silty peat. The western part of this pit was preserved in situ.

There was a large amount of material forming a ramp, up to 1m deep, towards the back of the site. It was composed of loose black silty clay, with inclusions of brick, coal and early modern pottery. In the western sewer trench, 25m from High Street, the soil profile was 0.2m of grey/black silty clay with animal bone, glass, brick and slate, then yellow/brown gravel to the bottom of the trench. Several fragments of human bone were recovered from this material and retained for post-excavation osteological study. The material in which the bone occurred was mixed and disturbed, not an in situ deposit. The skeletal material probably came from the burial-grounds of the ecclesiastical monuments ME036–021, the ‘Yellow Tower of St Mary’s Abbey’.

In the western foundation trench more archaeological material was observed. Excavation continued to a depth of 1.9m and revealed 0.3m of modern building rubble – stone, brick, mortar, clay over 0.95m of mid-brown silty clay with inclusions of charcoal, bone and medieval pottery – below which was up to 0.65m yellow/brown, gritty, stony sand with inclusions of iron. This lay over 0.2m dark-brown/black peat-like clayey silt at the northern end of the deposit; this fill was a purple colour towards the southern end and dark-brown silty clay comprised the floor of the trench.

The excavation of these deposits exposed a wall, to a depth of 0.7m. It was the corner of a medieval building, which projected obliquely into the western foundation trench. The east–west stretch of the wall was 0.6m long and the north-west/south-east stretch 1.6m long. It was built of rectangular limestone blocks, with no apparent mortar.

Twenty sherds of medieval pottery and a quantity of roof-slate fragments were recovered from the base of the wall.

A proposal to retain the remaining medieval deposits in situ was agreed with the Licensing Authority and implemented. Post-excavation work on the material recovered is in progress.

Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath