2007:733 - TRALEE: The Mall, Kerry

Licensed monitoring was undertaken at Heaton’s store on The Mall, Tralee, over a four-week period in July 2007. The proposed development was for the upgrading and reconstruction of the original retail premises, extending from The Mall to a partially constructed three-storey building located towards the northern end of Barrack Lane. The site is located within the zone of archaeological potential for the medieval town of Tralee (KE029–119), as defined in the Urban Archaeological Survey for County Kerry. The areas of Bridge Street, The Mall, The Square, Milk Market Lane and Barrack Street all formed the core part of the old medieval town. The original façade of the building fronting on to The Mall was retained and the ground between here and the partially constructed building at the site’s northern limit were built over as a refurbished department store.

Monitoring commenced on 25 June 2007 and concentrated on those areas of the development where maximum ground disturbance was to occur; i.e. the excavation of the lift shaft pit, sixteen pile caps and various trenches for ground beams. No crane base was excavated, as the crane in the adjacent Penney’s site (see No. 732, Excavations 2007) continued to be utilised on this development. Neither was excavation required for the escalator shaft, as the original pit was reused. The initial stage of the works involved the excavation of the lift shaft pit, located at the north-east corner of the site along the eastern boundary wall. All ground disturbance here was undertaken under archaeological supervision and the pit was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.45m from the existing surface. The soil profile differed slightly from that encountered in the adjacent site at Penney’s in that the depth of the modern overburden was considerably less. Here, it reached a maximum depth of 0.8m and overlay mottled grey/brown sandy silt with few stones. The upper layer consisted entirely of modern infill and contained relatively large amounts of domestic debris, including delft, glass, ceramics and butchered animal bones. The underlying sandy deposit contained considerably smaller amounts of modern debris and the excavation of the lift pit did not go beyond the level of this stratum, although small pockets of coarse orange gravel began to emerge in the central area of the pit.

The second week concentrated on the excavation for a reinforced concrete beam within the footprint of the building fronting on to The Mall. The trench initially cut through the concrete floor slab and penetrated into the modern overburden similar to that encountered in the lift shaft pit. The excavation did not go beyond the level of the modern overburden and no features or finds of archaeological significance were uncovered.

The remainder of the groundworks involved the excavation of pile caps and trenches for ground beams in the central area of the site. The excavation of the pile caps rarely exceeded 0.8m in depth and never went beyond the level of the modern overburden. The soil profile consisted of made ground, including rubble, red brick, modern delft and recently butchered animal bones interspersed within a dark-brown organic silt matrix. Similarly, the excavation of the trenches for the ground beams did not go beyond the level of this modern overburden and no features or finds of archaeological merit were noted in any of the excavated areas.

Rostellan, Midleton, Co. Cork