2019:411 - 71-85 Main Street, Limavady, Derry

The proposed site was located in the townland of Newtown Limavady alias Rathbrady Beg, close to the centre of the modern town. The site extended to some 0.5ha and was generally level, bounded to the west by light industry, to the north by Main Street, to the east by Connell Street and to the south by the access road leading to Connell Street car park. It was proposed to redevelop the site involving the demolition of the existing Lidl supermarket and buildings at Nos 71-75 Main Street, and the erection of replacement supermarket, car parking and associated site works.
The cartographic evidence would suggest that the core of the town is located around the grid pattern created by Main Street, Market Street, Catherine Street and Linenhall Street, with the older and more significant buildings surviving at this western end of the town. Nonetheless the eastern end of Main Street has archaeological potential, with the possibility of some earlier fabric surviving both within and under the present streetscape. HED have recognized this with the requirement for a Level 2 survey of the surviving buildings fronting out onto Main Street, to assess the possible survival of older fabric within the extant buildings. They also recognized the possibility of below-ground survival of earlier, potentially significant archaeological deposits, by seeking an archaeological evaluation of the site via the investigation of archaeological test trenches.
Testing took place between 17 October and 3 December 2019.
The site was tested via a series of c. 30m-long test trenches. Only one feature of note was uncovered, the very badly disturbed remains of a basement wall dating to the early 20th century, beneath No. 71 Main Street. Elsewhere, there was ample evidence for modern disturbance associated with the old supermarket building which formerly occupied the north-eastern quadrant of the development site. The southern area of the site was under car parking at the time of the testing and here up to 0.5m of tarmac and associated stone foundation layers directly overlay the natural sandy loam, suggesting that this area had been substantially scarped prior to car park construction.

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