E004487 - Cathedral Square and surrounding streets, Waterford

The Public Realm works were carried out by IAC Ltd under ministerial consent. The following description of the results of the monitoring was taken from the report by Brenda O'Meara and Tim Coughlan: 

Monitoring works at Cathedral Square and Bailey’s New Street, part of the Viking Triangle, Waterford, have identified a number of features of archaeological significance. In general these were preserved in situ as part of the development and were recorded by the monitoring archaeologists during the works.

On Bailey’s New Street the significant feature of interest was a post-medieval cobbled road surface. The cobbles were identified at the north-west end of the road. While the identification of a cobbled road in itself is not of particular significance, it has confirmed that stones noted during the excavation of a previous slot trench are not part of the town wall but associated with the cobbled surface. No structural evidence of the town wall was identified during works on Bailey’s New Street. A medieval soil horizon was identified generally at 1.2m below present ground level and it is likely that any medieval deposits or features above this depth have been significantly damaged by services.

A number of features associated a possible graveyard in the area of Cathedral Square were identified. The first of these was a possible boundary wall to the graveyard located in the north-west corner of the square near the junction with Bailey’s New Street. It was notable that all evidence of human remains was identified on the southern side of the wall only, suggesting it marked the boundary of the graveyard.

In the centre of Cathedral Square part of a mortared limestone wall was identified along the edge of the main drainage trench. It is thought that this could be associated with a chapel that was known to have existed in the area in the medieval period.

Possible in situ human remains were identified in Cathedral Square at a depth of c. 1m. The proposed depth of the drainage trench was subsequently raised so as to avoid impact on any in situ burial layer.

The largest quantity of human bone identified within the area of the graveyard on the west side of the Cathedral was that found within a charnel pit. These bones originated from the medieval graveyard but had obviously been disinterred during the post-medieval period and dumped into a substantial pit. A section of this pit was excavated and the remains subject to osteological analysis. A full report on the results of this analysis will be included within the final report.

Two crypts or vaults were identified extending beneath the present Cathedral. In one were five coffins (four of which were lead lined). A number of broken coffins and disarticulated human bone was also recorded stacked in this vault/crypt. From the inscriptions on the coffins the vault appears to have been a familial crypt of the Morris (or Morris-Wall) family. In an online search of the name on one of the coffins, Benjamin Morris Wall, one of the results leads to a National Library of Ireland document: a copy of royal licence to Sir Benjamin Morris, Knight, to take the name Wall in addition to and after his present surname, Jan. 8, 1875. Less than 12 months later Sir Benjamin Morris Wall died aged 81 years, on 20 December 1875 and his remains were placed in the vault in the cathedral.

The second vault also contained human remains in a single lead-lined coffin. The inscription on the coffin indicates that the body is that of Robert Daly, Lord Bishop of Cashel, Emly, Waterford & Lismore. He came from an affluent background with his family among the largest land-owners in Ireland by 1800 and dictating the mayoralty of Galway for numerous years. He was the leader of the Evangelical section of the church and was the founder and supporter of many societies, including the controversial Irish Society and the Church Education Society.

Other archaeological features identified consisted of a wall beneath the steps to the Deanery that are interpreted as being part of an 18th-century coach house that is depicted on the first edition OS map.

7 Bayview, Tramore, Co. Waterford