2007:652 - Loughrea, Galway

Monitoring of ground disturbance associated with the laying of pipes through Loughrea town was undertaken over a period of six months in 2007. The pipes were laid through Dunkellin Street and Main Street in the centre of the town. The excavations commenced at the west end of Dunkellin Street and involved the excavation of the entire roadway to a depth of c. 2–3m. Throughout the scheme the stratigraphy generally consisted of a tarred surface overlying subsoil that overlay a natural boulder clay. In a number of areas archaeological features were encountered.
At the west end of Dunkellin Street a stone wall feature was encountered c. 0.3m below the surface. While it was disturbed by service pipes in the north, the remainder of the wall survived. The feature was located immediately west of the former town moat and may represent the remnants of the town gate. The remains of the wall are comprised of three distinct sections, all of which have mortar throughout. The first two sections extend from the modern bridge over the moat and run parallel to each other for a distance of c. 1.5m. They run in a roughly east–west direction and are c. 4.6m apart. Both walls terminate at roughly the same distance from the bridge and facing stones are visible on both. The third wall was found to the east of the other two and measured 1.25m by 1.1m. The feature was cleaned back, recorded and backfilled, leaving the walls undisturbed. Along Main Street a number of shallow pits containing animal-bone fragments and a number of culverts of 19th-century date were encountered. At the east end of Main Street, where the pipeline terminated, a small number of wooden timbers were recovered at a depth of c. 2.2m. The area had been previously disturbed by the laying of both sewer and water pipes. Three of the timbers recovered had pointed ends and appear to have functioned as stakes to support a structure or maybe a bridge, which may have spanned the moat at this end of the town.