2011:259 - EARL’S ISLAND/NUN’S ISLAND/DOMINICK STREET/CLADDAGH QUAY/BALLYLOUGHANE/HARBOUR ENTERPRISE PARK, GALWAY, Galway

A monitoring programme was undertaken during works associated with the Galway Sewerage Scheme Phase 3 at various times between May 2011 and January 2012. This revealed a number of features during the works along Dominick Street and on Earl’s Island in the vicinity of the cathedral.
Along Dominick Street, among the most notable features recorded were sections of curving iron rail set into a finely constructed cut and dressed limestone-block plinth, which probably formed part of the turning mechanism for the swivel bridge constructed as part of the Eglinton Canal in 1855 and which was demolished around 1954 to make way for the present concrete-built structure.
Further north along Dominick Street a well-built stone culvert was identified, along with two sections of metalled surface probably representing the original late medieval street surface. In undisturbed sections of the excavated service trench a thick, dark organic deposit, probably representing domestic refuse probably dating from the 17th century, was noted below the modern surface and bedding layers.
In a trench running south-east from Dominick Street through the archway of No. 46 the previously disturbed remains of a cobbled surface and two building walls were identified. At the end of this trench, close to the bank of the River Corrib, a deep pit was excavated in order to insert a submersible pump. The upper levels of this pit were extremely disturbed, but the loose dark black organic deposit noted elsewhere was identified below the upper layers and was up to 2m deep. A number of late and post-medieval pottery fragments were recovered from this deposit, as well as a number of early clay pipe bowl fragments which may be of 17th-century date.
At Earl’s Island in the vicinity of the cathedral a number of features associated with the Town and County Gaol which previously occupied the area were recorded. These features included some cavernous arched sewers mentioned by Hardiman (1820, 303) in his description of the Galway Gaol. The other features recorded correspond neatly with the boundary walls and internal building walls depicted on the OS maps of the gaol complex.

Reference
Hardiman, J. 1820 History of the town and county of Galway. Dublin.

Eachtra Archaeological Projects—Galway, 124 Caireal Mór, Headford Road, Galway