2007:726 - TRALEE: Abbey Street, Kerry

Excavations were undertaken in advance of construction of a ground-floor bar/restaurant and six apartments and basement level at Abbey Street, Tralee. The proposed development site abuts the site of the Dominican Abbey of the Holy Cross within the zone of archaeological potential of the medieval town of Tralee.

This year’s excavation was an extension of excavations that took place in 2006 in the adjacent site, known as ‘Dominic Street’ (Excavations 2006, No. 916). The two sites abut each other and are part of the same planning application. As such, the site known as ‘Abbey Street–Dominic Street’ is considered as one archaeological site.

The following relates to the results of the 2007 ‘Abbey Street’ excavation. The upper levels excavated at the site comprised 19th-century overburden that was on average 0.8m deep below present ground level. Basal foundation courses of at least two limestone rubble structures (C.63/C.64 and C.36/C.41/C.56) were encountered beneath the overburden. Beneath one of the structures (C.36/C.41/C.56) feature C.80 was recorded. It extended for 4.9m (north-east/south-west) from the northern limit of excavation and was 1.15m wide and 0.6m deep. It contained a charcoal-enriched silty clay that produced a small amount of pottery sherds from the 17th/18th century. Immediately to the south of C.80 a rough cobbled surface, C.62, was recorded. C.62 was amorphous in plan and measured 5.2m (north–south) by 2.5m.

Three burials were encountered during the excavations. All three (Burials 4–6) were supine, extended east–west inhumations. Only Burial 5 had a grave-cut and just the basal levels of the grave and a few long bone and skull bones survived, having been truncated by the basement of a public bar that had recently occupied the site. In addition, the eastern end of the grave had been truncated by a 17th-century occupational debris pit, C.55. This pit contained three layers that produced several pottery sherds that have been dated to the 17th century. The pit measured 2.5m long by 1.96m wide by 0.75m in depth. The eastern extent of the pit was in turn truncated by the pub basement. In the surface layer of the pit, adjacent to the foundations of the basement, a crushed human skull was recorded. The skull may have been disturbed and redeposited in the top of the pit by the construction of the basement. Burials 5 and 6 were found in proximity to one another in the centre of the site in the interface between layer C.9 and the subsoil. Burials 5 and 6 were truncated in antiquity from construction of past structures there and were in an extremely poor state of preservation. Burial 6 was in a particularly bad condition and only a small amount of the bone did not disintegrate during lifting. No grave goods were found with any of the burials, although a non-ferrous key was found in proximity to Burial 6 in the soil adjacent to the right side of the pelvis.

Three other pits were recorded. All were at the limit of excavation and only C.47 produced datable artefacts, in the form of 17th-century pottery. C.47 was a mere 0.2m from pit C.55 and is most likely to be of a similar function and date. To the immediate south of pit C.55, and also truncated by the pub basement, the foundation courses of two walls (C.42 and C.46) were recorded.

A cultural layer (C.72) to the immediate south of linear feature C.80 produced tentative evidence for the location of a possible timber structure. Although at a relatively shallow depth beneath the present ground surface, a remarkable amount of organic material had survived within C.72; roundwood twigs, roots, straw, ferns, turf logs, branches, leaves, leather off-cuts, etc., were preserved within the layer. C.72 was moderately compact dark-reddish-brown peaty silty clay with frequent charcoal throughout. Amorphous in plan, it extended beyond the limit of excavation to the east. Maximum exposed dimensions were 10.3m (north–south) by 5.5m by 0.3m in thickness.

Apart from an amorphous layer of straw, twigs and ferns (C.72a) that may have represented a floor level, a small number of worked timbers (including a plank) were recorded. These timbers may have been structural in origin. Also, one of the closest concentrations of domestic pottery was recorded in the layer. However, no subsoil-cut structural trenches or post-holes were found indicating there had been a house there.

A circular well (C.75) was recorded in the western area of the site. It was found at a depth of 1.67m below present ground level. The well was revealed beneath a mottled yellow/green impermeable clay mantle, 0.2m thick. Initially the well would have been constructed within a larger pit, but the cut for this could not be ascertained within the surrounding, identical, clay.

The well itself was 2.05m in depth by a maximum 1.12m in width. At the base was a remarkably well-preserved oak barrel complete with cooper’s marks and five in situ corroded metal hoops on the exterior. The barrel had a maximum height of 1.05m, a maximum diameter (at centre) of 0.8m and a minimum diameter (at top) of 0.75m. The barrel had no base and no lid and was slightly compressed inwards at the top, where the stone-built section of the well began. This compression may have happened in antiquity or alternatively may have occurred during recent drilling for the secant piles, which are located a mere 1.1m to the north. The barrel, comprising 32 staves, also had its bung in situ. Towards the top of the barrel, where it narrows in width, sub-rounded packing stones had been used in the original construction to stabilise the barrel within the surrounding clay. The stones had average dimensions of 0.1m by 0.05m by 0.03m.

On top of the barrel lay the stone-built section of the well (C.75). It was constructed with well-selected, well-matched small limestone stones with occasional quartz, bedded in yellow/green clay. The stones were roughly coursed, laid on flat with the short edge showing, making up c. 15 courses. A fibrous material, possibly sphagnum moss, was found within the matrix of the stones. This material (C.75a) was used as a sealant for the well.

The well had been backfilled with loose to moderately compacted, soft, dark-greyish-brown loamy silty clay (C.76). This deposit contained frequent sub-angular limestones (averaging 0.12m by 0.08m by 0.07m).

The 17th-century cultural layer C.9, which was found across the entirety of the Dominic Street area of the site, was also found to extend across the Abbey Street excavation area. C.9 was recorded at a thickness of between 0.75m to 1.2m and comprised dark-blackish-brown organic silty clay that included frequent animal bone, oyster shells, clay-pipe fragments, glass shards, etc. A moderate assemblage of pottery was recovered from C.9, most of which were 17th-century in date, primarily North Devon gravel-tempered wares, although Raeren and Lowland wares were also recovered.

The preliminary results at Abbey Street effectively represent the final season of the overall excavation that has continued from the Dominic Street area. Post-excavation analysis relating to the excavations at Abbey Street–Dominic Street is ongoing.

3 Lios Na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry