2008:544 - Courthouse Lane, Galway, Galway

Monitoring of groundworks during development works at the Druid Theatre in Courthouse Lane, Galway city, was carried out between 13 October and 19 November 2008. The monitoring was recommended following submission of a report on pre-development testing carried out on the site in February 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 685, 04E0204) which revealed evidence of modern activity associated with the 19th-century building on the site. The proposed development was located within the archaeological constraint for Galway city (GA094–100).
The groundworks were carried out using a mini-digger, with some manual excavation. They consisted of: a disabled access ramp, located along the south-east wall of the building, which measured c. 5m long, 1.4–2m wide and 0.45–1m deep; general ground reduction in the foyer, an area which measured 7m north-west/south-east and 6.1m wide and general ground reduction of 0.4–0.6m in depth in ‘Bernie’s’ yard, a storage area to the rear of the main building; as well as the excavation of a number of pits for props along the south-west yard wall and excavation along the entire length of the north-east yard wall for underpinning.
Below the concrete floor on the surface of the foyer/proposed access ramp area was modern rubble fill. Below the proposed new entrance was part of the foundation of the south-west wall of the building. This wall contained a reused architectural fragment. Below the rubble fill was a layer of cobbles. Below the cobbles was a second rubble fill, which contained mortar, slates, an uninscribed clay-pipe stem, red and yellow bricks, cobbles, modern pottery sherds and two spud stones. Below the second rubble fill was a mid-dark-brown friable silt loam which contained an occasional piece of mortar, animal bone fragments and shell (oyster and periwinkle). The foundation for the north-east wall of the building was also partially exposed. A mortared rubble wall (0.45m wide) was also exposed, which would have divided the existing foyer area in two at one time.
On the surface of the rear/’Bernie’s’ yard was a concrete floor, below which was a modern rubble fill and a wall. The wall consisted of one course of mortared rubble and red brick above a loose rubble and red-brick foundation. Below the rubble fill and the wall was a mid-dark-brown friable silt loam, which contained occasional animal bone fragments, a moderate amount of shells (oyster, mussel, cockle and periwinkle) and fourteen blackware sherds of 18th/19th-century date.
The stratigraphy uncovered in the three pits excavated along the south-west wall of the yard was similar to that within the yard generally, apart from a grey plastic clay visible below the friable silt loam in one of the pits. The underpinning of the north-east wall of the yard revealed the same stratigraphy as that in the remainder of the yard area.
The groundworks at Courthouse Lane uncovered modern artefacts, features and deposits associated with the existing 19th-century building on the site. Below the concrete floor were modern rubble fills, a layer of cobbles and the foundations of the walls of the existing building. The friable silt loam, found over the entire area below the rubble fill, contained 18/19th-century pottery sherds. The grey clay uncovered in the yard may have been natural subsoil; however, the area uncovered was so small and the deposit not fully excavated so that one could not be certain that the layer was not redeposited. The wall uncovered at the south-east end of Bernie’s yard post-dated the building, a number of opes in the north-east wall of the building having been blocked up following its construction. It was the remains of a small outbuilding, perhaps a lean-to added to the main building, probably sometime later in the 19th century.