2017:631 - Boyne Shopping Centre, George's Street, Drogheda, Louth

The proposed development site is located on the site of Corrigan's Pub, 91-93 George’s Street, Drogheda, which extends from George’s Street to the rear of the Boyne Centre. The proposed vehicular access to the site is from the Boyne Centre and will straddle the line of the medieval town wall; it is within the Zone of Archaeological Potential of Drogheda (LH024-041). The proposal involves the possible widening of the existing access which may involve work to the fabric of the town wall.
Modern pebble dash was removed by hand from a band extending from the west, outer façade of the wall, around the corner, for a distance of about 1.5m. It was clear that the rounded corner had been constructed from well-chosen and positioned stones, to create a continuous uninterrupted sweep. At least three courses of stone were exposed and each was lined up with the course below, to create a plumb, well-constructed fair face.
Four episodes were noted in the exposed section of wall:
1. The stone wall itself, well-constructed with large sandstone boulders, with flat exposed surfaces creating a smooth plumb face in a gently curving right angle. The stones were embedded in a coarse lime mortar. This mortar was analysed, and from the results of the friability, porosity and lime/sand ratio, it was concluded that it is, in all probability, probably 13th or 14th century in date.
2. The exposed face exhibited some repairs, with smaller chocking stones and fragments of red brick placed in the interstices to stabilise the wall. The presence of red brick would indicate a post 17th-century date for these repairs.
3. The lower courses of the wall, particularly along the west façade, but also extending to the corner itself were shuttered in concrete, with this concrete consolidation work extending up and around many of the exposed stones of the wall.
4. The final phase of works to the wall consisted of the pebble-dash, which covered the entire north façade, and extended round the corner to the start of the north façade. It was this pebble-dash which effectively masked the architectural details of the corner.

In addition, analysis of the mortar from the core of the main straight north-south running wall, showed conclusively that it was a ‘Common mortar’, with all the indicators are pointing towards an 18th- or even 19th-century date for its construction.

The examination of the wall revealed that beneath the pebble dash and earlier albeit modern, concrete shuttering and pointing, was a wall which exhibited two phases of works, the later being a series of repairs utilising red brick, suggesting a date of no earlier than the 17th century, and the size of the brick would suggest a date of probably 18th or indeed 19th century for the repairs.
The curved wall itself was well constructed, with large, mortared sandstone boulders used to create the fair face, which was plumb and, in the section examined, took the form of a curving right-angled corner. Analysis of the mortar associated with this curving wall suggested a medieval date, in the 13th or 14th century.
Conversely, the straight section of wall, running off to the south, would appear to be an 18th- or 19th-century construction, again based on the analysis of the mortar. This would tie it with observations in the field where it was noted that this section of the wall appeared to be found directly on soil with no evidence that the lowest ‘foundation’ stones were any larger than those in the rest of the wall.
The evidence from excavations in the vicinity suggest that a large substantial ‘extra-mural’ ditch ran parallel to the north-south running wall, which is in all probability evidence for the 13th/14th- century town defences. This ditch continued towards the site of Bolton Gate located some 90m to the north-east. Interestingly, the Ordnance Survey 1st edition map of c. 1835 does not show any wall, or indeed any property boundaries extending northwards along this line. It had been assumed that this was simply a cartographic oversight, but it is possible that in the early 19th century the line of the wall or property boundary did not formally exist, or did not exist in such a form as to necessitate a line on a map. This map does however record the wall as taking a right-angled turn to enclose the site of St Peter’s school. By 1870 the OS records the line of a wall extending to the north, however it records a distinct ‘kink’ where the northern property boundary joins the boundary wall of the school suggesting that the portion of wall continuing to the north is later. Finally, there exists a map, drawn in 1946 as part of the title deeds to what was to become the Boyne Shopping Centre, which conclusively records that the wall enclosing St Peter’s school as being earlier, encompassing the curved right angle.
What is certain is that the line of the town wall originally ran from Fair Gate to the south of the site, to Bolton Gate to the north. Despite the lack of upstanding remains of the wall in the site of the present Boyne Shopping Centre, archaeological investigations in 2008 uncovered evidence for the defensive ditch associated with the town wall. This proves the presence of the line of the wall, despite no upstanding remains. The present investigations strongly suggests that the ‘straight’ portion of the wall upstanding within the proposed development site, while being built on the ‘line’ of the medieval town wall, is in fact a property boundary, built most likely in the early 19th century, dating to the 1820s, enclosing the site of the original St Peter’s school for orphan girls. It is possible that some traces of this section of the town wall may still exist, but the fact that this wall is found directly on soil, would suggest that all surface traces of the original wall have been removed, possibly with the stone reused in the construction of the later property boundary wall. It should however be stressed that although the wall may have been removed, the defensive ditch certainly survives, running parallel and exterior to the north-south running property boundary line.
The fact that the ‘curved’ section of the wall would seem to be 13th or 14th century in date appears problematical. However, an examination of the town wall in the vicinity reveals the existence of a semi-circular mural tower, located outside the application site in third party ownership, to the rear of 97 George’s Street, some 40m to the south of the present area of investigation. This tower is not an isolated example; some 10 other circular mural towers are known from the defensive circuit on the north side of the town.
The results from these investigations, therefore, allied to the analysis of the mortar, present the intriguing possibility that the remains of a heretofore unknown mural tower have been discovered. If this is the case, this would add considerably to the importance of this area of the town and would add significantly to our understanding of the development of the town’s defences in this part of Drogheda.

AHC Ltd, 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan. Co Down BT31 9LF