2017:181 - 2 Dominic Street, Cashel, Tipperary

Monitoring took place from 7-14 September of 35m pipe trench excavation for emergency sewage installation. The scope of the works was from a man hole in the rear garden of No. 2 Dominic Street, which ran beneath the medieval town wall, some 11m to south-west, after which it ran to south-east for a further 24m to connect to a man hole. The trench was between 0.6m and 1.4m in width and it breached the town wall between 0.7 and 1m beneath the current ground level. Prior to wall intrusion, it was established that one face of the town wall at the location of breach dated to c. 1720, while the other face dated to c. 1780. It was found that the ground level on both sides of the wall had been raised from the post-medieval period to the 1950s. On interior of wall (south-west side) the ground level was raised in the early 18th century as a result of landscaping the grounds in conjunction with the construction of the Palace Hotel.

On north-east side the ground had been raised up with introduced soils to a much more significant extent from the 19th century to after the 1950s. This was a direct result of this side of the wall being subject to standing water (identified in sedimentary soils in lower trench profile), most likely on a seasonal basis.

The final introduced topsoil was laid in associated with terraced houses built in 1950s that front onto Dominic Street. An attempt at drainage can be seem dating to this period in which the soil was re-dug abutting the town wall and modern 20th-century rubble and discarded items were loosely filled in as water catchment. While no archaeology was encountered, other than existing upstanding medieval elements to the town wall, an 18th-century haha was found directly beneath the current ground level at the south-east end of the trench and was orientated south-east to north-west. It was recorded as built heritage of local value, and directly associated with the Palace Hotel.

Dunburbeg, Clonmel Road, Cashel, Co. Tipperary