County: Galway Site name: 9 Henry Street, Galway
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0761
Author: Finn Delaney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects – Galway, Unit 10 Kilkerrin Park, Liosbain Industrial Estate, Galway.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 529338m, N 724948m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.270158, -9.059330
An assessment was undertaken of a proposed development at No. 9 Henry Street in Galway. The assessment was based on archaeological and historical research and a programme of testing. The proposed redevelopment involves the change of use of a building (No. 9 Henry Street, a 19th-century thatched house and a protected structure, Reg. No. 4601) from a dwelling/shop to a lounge area of a public house, No. 10 William Street West (Massimo’s). The site of the proposed redevelopment lies outside the zone of archaeological potential surrounding the medieval town of Galway (GA094–100). Excavations at the site were undertaken over two days on 18–19 September 2008. Conditions at the time of the excavations were dry and overcast.
There is no access to the rear yard apart from through the present building therefore all excavations and clearance was undertaken by hand. A single 7.3m-long and 1m-wide trench was excavated from west to east across the garden area to the rear of the building. A humic rich, dark-brown silty clay garden soil was excavated to a depth of between 0.9m and 1m. This garden soil contained modern pottery, black earthenware, glass, ceramic, clay pipes and small fragments of red brick and slate. Where no bedrock was encountered, the garden soil was underlain by a coarse orange sandy gravel. Angular granite bedrock directly underlay the garden soil in places and was encountered at depths ranging from 0.2–0.6m.
The excavated trench revealed that there is no evidence towards the centre of the yard for cobbling or any other features related to the commercial function of the building in the past. As it was not possible to excavate the second proposed trench due to an unexpected thick layer of concrete which was revealed following hand-clearance works in preparation for test excavations, it was proposed that, during site preparation works for the proposed redevelopment, an archaeologist should monitor the removal of the concrete layer in order that the subsurface remains of any possible earlier structures can be identified and recorded.
