2019:034 - rear of Main Street, Loughrea, Galway

Pre-development testing was carried out over a three-day period, from 6-11 February 2019, at the site of the proposed housing development at the rear of Main Street, Loughrea townland, Loughrea, Co. Galway. The proposed development site is located immediately to the south of The Walks, a late-eighteenth-century pleasure promenade that runs east-west across the northern limits of the medieval town, and its associated 'watercourse', which is a narrow trout stream that follows the line of the medieval moat. Eight trenches, varying in length from 6m to 20m and 1m in width, were excavated at the site.
Two stone-lined drains were discovered at the site, one running north-south from the boundary wall to the Walks and one in the centre of the site, also orientated north-south, some 15m south of the boundary wall to the Walks. In a further two trenches along the northern boundary of the site, a linear cut with a grey fill was discovered, running east-west. The cut and fill were c. 1.4m in width and they were recorded but not excavated during the pre-development testing. The finds discovered throughout the site indicate activity dating to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

80 Portacarron, Ballymoneen Road, Galway.