2012:272 - Augustine Street and Flood Street, Galway, Galway

Monitoring was carried out at Augustine Street and Flood Street within the Historic core of Galway (GA094-100) in February and March 2012. Groundworks involved the laying of approx. 140m of a gas main in open cut trenching along Augustine Street and Flood Street terminating at the corner of Courthouse Lane. The trench dimensions were approximately 1m deep by 0.45m wide. Generally the stratigraphy below the modern layers (0.3m) consisted of a mix of builders’ fill with sand gravel and frequent small stones (0.3m). This overlay a composite layer of dark grey silty sand with occasional animal bone fragments and frequent oyster, mussel and periwinkle shell. There were no finds recovered from this layer. Along Augustine Street excavation exposed a variety of modern services including water, electricity and sewerage. On the southern side of Flood Street the trench ran parallel to an old stone-lined culvert. The line terminated at the junction of Courthouse Lane; all the deposits exposed in this area were modern.

The only feature of significance was a stone foundation found opposite No. 12 Augustine Street (between the Mountain Trail Bike Shop and Galway Town Homes) near the centre of the northern carriageway. The foundation was a rubble-built heavily mortared wall 0.7m in width that continued to the base of the trench. The wall was orientated north-west by south-east and was found 0.45m below the road surface. A disturbed cobbled surface was found to the south-west of wall extending 1.5m along the trench. The cobbles were poorly sorted and were previously impacted on by a nearby service installation. Following an inspection by Hugh Carey, Archaeologist with the National Monuments Service, the wall was preserved in situ. No further finds or features were found during the course of the project.

Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd (MOORE GROUP), 3 Gort Na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway.