2007:1226 - Shamble Street/Market Street, Castlebar, Mayo

Pre-development testing was carried out between 15 and 24 January 2007 at a site to the rear of Shamble Street and Market Street, Castlebar, Co. Mayo. The proposed development, which was at the pre-planning stage, was located within the archaeological constraint for Castlebar town (MA078–003). The proposed development comprised retail, leisure and restaurants with a number of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments overhead. At the time of the testing the site was occupied by four carparks and was bounded to the north and north-west by the Castlebar River, to the south-west by buildings fronting on to Shamble Street and to the east and south-east by Market Street and buildings fronting o nto Market Street.
Most of the site, according to the first-edition 6-inch OS sheet of 1838, consisted of the back gardens of properties facing on to Market Street, which sloped down to the Castlebar River. The modern carparks had obliterated most of the evidence of these plots. A large stone warehouse located within the site dated to the mid-19th century. Local knowledge suggested that a bakery was located immediately to the south-west of this warehouse.
The testing consisted of the excavation (by machine) of fifteen trenches of a variety of lengths between 19m and 60m, 0.95–2.0m wide and 0.15–3.3m deep. Testing revealed evidence of a site which had been backfilled in the late 20th century to provide for car parking. Below the tarmac and chippings which covered the surface was hardcore and modern rubble fill. Below the rubble fill was the original topsoil and natural subsoil. A number of 20th-century features were uncovered including a concrete surface and a concrete wall.
A 4m-long and 0.1–0.2m-thick band of fist-sized decayed rocks was uncovered in a trench along the river; however, the rocks also appeared sporadically in natural subsoil in three adjacent trenches. These did not appear to contain charcoal and being spread over a large area probably did not represent the remains of a burnt spread but naturally decaying rock. A stone surface uncovered in another trench appeared to be the remains of a modern garden path, as the clay in which the flags were set contained modern artefacts. An associated modern wall along with two other narrow rubble walls uncovered appeared to be the remains of plot boundaries. A stone-built feature found to the rear of the buildings fronting on to Market Street was probably the poorly preserved remains of a well. A distillery was marked in the same general area on the 1838 OS 6-inch sheet. Two rubble wall foundations uncovered in the same area were part of the remains of ‘Browne Villa flats’, the name given to a terrace of dwellings located along the north-east wall of Staunton’s carpark, which were demolished in the 1990s. A layer of cobbles uncovered just off Market Street within modern rubble fill may well have been exposed on the surface into the 20th century.
All features and deposits uncovered during the testing appeared to be modern. Nothing of archaeological significance was revealed.