2007:727 - TRALEE: Abbey Street Lower/Mary Street/Godfrey Place, Kerry

Pre-development test excavations were undertaken at a proposed development site in Tralee town, Co. Kerry. The site currently comprises two distinct unequal areas separated by a high stone wall. The largest area is currently in use as a temporary local authority carpark and is locally known from its previous incumbents as ‘Cameo Bakery’. Five large test-trenches were excavated in this area. The second area essentially comprises a row of contiguous lean-to concrete-block sheds constructed against the rear of the high dividing wall that bisects the site as well as an access way into the adjoining property. A single narrower trench (T6) was excavated along the access way.

A track machine excavated the modern levels and overburden from the trenches utilising a flat grading bucket. The remainder of the works were carried out by hand.

Trench 1 was orientated roughly east–west, measured 46.8m in length and was 2m in width. Beneath an average depth of 0.2m of concrete relating to the floor of the now demolished bakery, a heavy overburden of introduced fill was recorded. The overburden had an average depth of 1.2m in the eastern half of the trench, becoming an average of 1.5m in the western half. Four shorter trenches (T2–T4) were then excavated radiating from Trench 1. A series of modern walls and associated cobbled and paved surfaces were revealed. The walls were typically 0.6m in width and of limestone rubble construct. The walls, with one exception, were set in lime and sand mortar.

Trench 6 was situated in the laneway in the southern area of the site. It measured 21.2m in length by 1m in width and was a maximum of 1m in depth. At the eastern extent of the trench an area of mass concrete extended westwards for a distance of 4m. The stratigraphy of the trench from surface to base typically comprised layers of tarmac, gravel and overburden, with a very fine cobbled surface at the base. At the eastern extent of the trench a sondage, S.4 (4m by 1.2m), was excavated through the cobbled surface. Beneath the surface a further depth of 0.4m of rubble and mortar overburden was recorded. This overburden overlay a cultural layer of blackish-brown organic silty clay similar to that found in Trenches 1–5 in the main area of testing at the site. Modern white-glazed ceramics were retrieved from this layer, which overlay firm greenish-yellow clay subsoil. Ultimately, subsoil was reached in the sondage at a depth of 2.4m below present ground level.

The results of testing have shown that no archaeological deposits, features or strata occur at the site. The basal levels of several 19th-century structures that once stood at Godfrey Place, Lower Abbey Street and Mary Street were revealed. A single coherent cultural layer that has been artefactually dated to the 19th century exists at several locations across the site; white-glazed ceramics were retrieved from the firmly stratified lower levels of this layer. No reused medieval architectural fragments were found.

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