2007:623 - 25A Nuns Island Street, Galway, Galway

Following the demolition of a house on the corner of Nuns Island Street, a test-trench was excavated in order to determine if archaeological strata existed on the site. The trench was c. 15m long and was initially 1m wide, though the eastern end was later widened to a total width of 4.15m. The excavated material largely consisted of fill that had clearly been introduced into the site in the early modern period in order to the raise the local ground level. The fill material consisted of stone, loose earth and occasional pieces of brick and other waste which gave a clear indication of the date of the material. It extended downwards to 1.55m below surface level at the eastern end of the site and 0.85m below it at the western end, indicating that the fill was introduced on to to a site that sloped considerably from west to east towards the adjoining stream/mill-race. The composition of the fill material suggests an early modern date for the layer and the cartographic evidence for the development of the site corroborates this and narrows the likely date range for the introduction of the fill material to between 1764 and 1818. Beneath the introduced material, the pre-fill surface layer was identified as a soft, dark silty material with occasional stones and many dead roots within it. No finds or features of archaeological interest were recorded in the trench.