2012:415 - ARDEE: Irish Street, Louth

Test trenches were excavated on 24 May 2012 on a site for a commercial garage at Irish Street, Ardee, Co. Louth in fulfilment of a request for Further Information from Louth County Council. The site is situated on an unnamed lane which runs eastwards from the north end of Irish Street, within an extra-mural suburb of the medieval town (LH017-101). Richardson’s Map of Ardee in 1677 shows the area of the proposed development as open space with some trees. On the 1836 OS six-inch map the present site is divided between three properties comprising an L-shaped building, cultivated garden, and part of an open field. Now an open yard, the boundary on the south and south-east sides is formed by the side walls of a two-storey 19th-century store recently demolished.

Test trenching uncovered the walls of the demolished store and deposits of gravelly soil and clay overlying gravel subsoil at depths of 0.3-0.5m. These deposits contained only charcoal and cinder and probably date to the building of the store in the mid-19th century (post-1836). An undated shallow pit in the gravel subsoil, 0.85m in diameter and 0.2m deep, contained three pig bones. A 0.5m-wide wall foundation and metalled surface may relate to the building shown at this location on the 1836 OS map. A condition of archaeological monitoring was subsequently attached to the grant of planning permission.