2019:280 - TRALEE: Upper Castle Street, Walpole Lane, Boherbee and Moyderwell Cross, Balloonagh, Kerry

Monitoring of the new water network within the urban centre of Tralee town was undertaken from February to May 2019. The proposed development consisted of the replacement of approx. 2.130m of cast iron watermains and all associated groundworks included Upper Castle Street, Walpole Lane, the western limits of Boherbee and Moyderwell Cross area. The monitored area is partially situated within the Zone of Archaeological Potential for the Historic Town of Tralee, KE029-119. Linear trenches were excavated mainly along the Castle Street and also along Walpole Lane and Green Lane. Following initial cutting with a road-saw the trenching was opened with a 5.5-tonne rubber-wheeled excavator with 0.5m grading bucket sometimes aided by a rock breaker. Thereafter, many of the trench excavations were completed by hand due to presence of existing water pipes, subsurface electrical cables and other services. The trenches had an average width of 0.8m and a depth of 1.2m.

Monitoring revealed a coherent and contiguous stone-built drain that extended more or less for the entirety of the works. The defunct drain featured three differing construction forms. Much of the drain contained fill material from which virtually all the finds were recovered. Preliminary evaluation of the finds indicates a dating milieu from the mid-18th century to the terminal decades of the 19th or early decades of the 20th century. Nothing of archaeological interest from the medieval period was found.