2010:543 - Townparks South, Trim, Meath

In November 2010 test excavations were undertaken to determine whether a ditch extended adjacent to the medieval town wall of Trim to the rear of Watergate Street. The excavations formed part of a programme of works undertaken by Trim Town Council to fulfil the policies of the management and conservation plans for the town wall.
This section of the town wall extends for c. 190m, forming the western boundary of properties fronting on to Watergate Street and Emmet Street. Only two surviving masonry portions of the wall are clearly identifiable aboveground within this section, though the grass-covered remains of a mural tower survive at its northern terminus. Elsewhere, the surviving ‘wall’ consists of a low earthen bank between 0.5m and 1.5m high. Excavations carried out by Alan Hayden to the rear of Emmet Street in 2002 identified the rubble core of the original town wall within an earthen bank. Hayden also identified a possible medieval town ditch immediately to the west of the wall, 1.25m below ground level; the cut measured 0.5m deep, up to 5.5m wide (Hayden 2002 and Excavations 2002, No. 1539).
The area between the ‘wall’ and the OPW headquarters to the west is greenfield. A single test-trench was opened by machine, c. 17m south of the mural tower to the rear of Watergate Street. The trench extended east–west, measured 9.7m long, 1.3m wide, 1–1.3m deep and stopped 2.2m west of the earthen bank occupying the line of the town wall. A glacial deposit of broken shale, grey sand and gravel (F7) was exposed across the western half of the trench at a depth of 1–1.3m. This was sealed by a deposit of light-brown clay c. 0.35m deep, in turn sealed by topsoil. The western edge of a possible ditch cut was exposed c. 6.2–6.7m west of the earthen bank occupying the line of the town wall, cutting through the clay layer and into natural gravels (F7), sloping steeply down to the east. The cut contained a fill of coarse silt and sand, grey/brown in colour. A single sherd of abraded medieval pottery was recovered within. Both cut and fill were sealed by topsoil c. 0.8m to 1m deep. The eastern edge of the cut was not visible within the trench. The conditions of testing prevented excavation to any greater depth. The features were tentatively interpreted as the cut and fill of a possible town ditch.
Reference
Hayden, A. 2002 Excavation of an archaeological test-trench outside the line of the town wall at rear of Emmet Street, Townparks South, Trim, Co. Meath: Excavation licence no. 01E0615. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service.