2007:1117 - Main Street, Kilfinnane, Limerick

An application to Limerick County Council to develop a derelict site on Lower Main Street, Kilfinnane, led to a request for an impact assessment to be prepared. A small-scale housing development is proposed for the site and, as it is located within the constraint zone for a church and graveyard (LI048–058), it was required that a test excavation be carried out as part of the assessment. The proposed development includes the demolition of the two derelict buildings fronting on to Lower Main Street and their replacement with new houses which will conform to the existing 19th-century streetscape.
Four test-trenches were opened. Two trenches were laid out to the rear of the property across the east and west foundation lines of the proposed house close to the eastern boundary. A third trench was centrally positioned to incorporate a service line through the proposed development, while the fourth trench was placed horizontally to the rear of the two derelict houses. The topsoil in most areas of the site consisted of light to mid-brown silt overlying buff-coloured relatively stone-free subsoil. Topsoil cover in the trench to the immediate rear of the two existing derelict houses consisted of rich garden soil varying in depth from 0.65m to 0.72m. Many large boulders and rubble were encountered throughout the topsoil and a deep deposit of red brick, rubble, animal bone, modern delft and plastic materials was exposed less than 0.4m beneath the existing ground level at the eastern limit of the trench. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted in any of the excavated trenches.