2008:643 - 3 Staughton’s Row, Tralee, Kerry

Test excavations were undertaken at a proposed development site at No. 3 Staughton’s Row, Tralee, Co. Kerry. The development comprises the renovation of a 19th-century townhouse and the development of a small rear yard area, 12.3m (east–west) by 6.3m. The site is situated within the zone of archaeological potential for the medieval town of Tralee, but in a closer context it is adjacent to the medieval site of the Dominican Abbey of the Holy Cross, a national monument.
The testing revealed no significant archaeological deposits, features or strata within the rear yard area of the site. The basal levels of a previous 19th-century rear extension of the building were revealed. This extension can be seen on the first-edition OS map of 1841. Two coherent garden layers (C.4 and C.5) exist in the rear yard area, which have been dated to the 19th/20th century, with white-glazed ceramics retrieved from the firmly stratified lower levels of C.5.
Although the main focus of test excavations was the yard area, three sondages were excavated by hand within the basement area of the standing building to ascertain the potential underlying cultural stratigraphy. The basement comprises a kitchen area to rear (east) and storage area for coal and goods to the front (west). The three sondages averaged 0.7m by 0.7m by 0.4m in depth. The same stratigraphy was encountered in all three; a redeposited impermeable mid-yellow clay layer with a depth of 0.4m overlay a cobbled floor surface. The sondages were excavated to the top of the cobbled surface and no further investigation of this feature was undertaken. It was not possible to date the cobbled surface within the basement, or indeed the redeposited clay layer above it. It is most likely that the clay represents an impermeable seal to halt water ingress to the building from the adjacent tidal area of the Big River that runs along the front of Staughton’s Row and formerly the medieval port area of Tralee. The river was an open waterway when No. 3 Staughton’s Row was constructed in c. 1805, subsequently being culverted in the latter half of the 19th century.
The impermeable clay layer overlying the cobbled surface will not be physically impacted on during construction works at the site. A ground beam will be constructed in the basement over the clay, leaving the clay in situ, and consequently the cobbled surface beneath.