County: Galway Site name: 10 High Street, Galway
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA094–100 Licence number: 06E0457
Author: Dominic Delany, Dominic Delany & Associates, Unit 3, Howley Court, Oranmore, Co. Galway.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 529730m, N 725148m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.272013, -9.053492
Monitoring of excavations associated with a proposed extension to a commercial property at 10 High Street, Galway, took place on various dates between April and June 2008. The proposed development includes the demolition of outbuildings and construction of an extension to the rear of the premises. The development works require the reduction of floor levels by 0.5m within the confines of the protected structure, and the demolition of outbuildings and reduction of ground levels by 0.6m across the footprint of the proposed extension to the rear. Previous testing was carried out in April 2006 and on foot of that work monitoring was recommended as further mitigation for the development (Excavations 2006, No. 799).
The concrete floor slab within the existing building was found to overlay a typical urban deposit of mixed dark-brown silty sand with inclusions of stone, brick, slate, animal bone, glass fragments and potsherds. The pottery consisted primarily of 19th-century wares, with some sherds of post-medieval date also present. Undisturbed grey/white sandy clay subsoil with infrequent small stones was exposed in the western part of the shop.
Excavations to the rear of the protected structure revealed mixed deposits typical of what one might expect to find in an urban context: dark-grey/brown sandy silts with stone, brick, slate, shell, charcoal, animal bone, pottery sherds and glass fragments. There was much modern disturbance attributable to building works and the insertion of services. The majority of the finds were of relatively modern date but a significant quantity of post-medieval pottery and glass was also recovered. Most of the post-medieval finds were concentrated in the north-east corner of the site, where a substantial assemblage was recovered from what appears to be a single deposition event. The evidence, however, suggests that it is not an in situ post-medieval context but redeposited material.
During the course of monitoring of demolition works and development excavations a number of cut and dressed stones were retrieved and retained for incorporation into the new build. The monitoring report contains an appendix cataloguing the worked stone from the site. No significant architectural fragments were recovered.
