2019:090 - Pearse Square and Park Street, Mountmellick, Laois

A watermain pipe trench was monitored both south and north of the River Owenass along Park Street and Pearse Square to the junction of Market Street and Parnell Street, Mountmellick. House connection trenches were also monitored.
No archaeological features or artefacts were discovered along the majority of the length of the scheme, except for a deposit of post-medieval refuse consisting of numerous glass bottles, a few fragments of animal bone and the sherds of at least three ceramic vessels. This refuse deposit was located in the pipe trench 1.5m north of the gate of the graveyard at the north end of Park Street. The deposit was found at a depth of 0.3-0.8m below the road surface and measured at most 1.8m in length. A representative sample of diagnostic elements of glass and pottery was retrieved, with the remainder of the broken material left in situ.
The deposit of refuse is characterised mainly by wine bottles, which date to the late 18th to early 19th century, with one example of a fragment of early 18th-century onion bottle. Pottery from the same assemblage appears to be 18th century in date, whilst fragments of clay tobacco pipe are undiagnostic. The faunal assemblage is typical of food waste. Taken as a whole it would appear that the refuse, which may have derived from an inn or tavern rather than a domestic setting, was deposited in the late 18th century. Cartographic evidence suggests that the northern end of what is now Park Street was realigned between 1838 and 1907, moving slightly to the east to run immediately along the front of the school that lies adjacent to the church. The location of the refuse deposit was formerly within the rear of a property on the west side of Park Street, in the yard or garden of a building that fronted onto what is now Church Street. Presumably the waste material was dumped within the yard prior to the road realignment.
One other object, a clay marble or bottle stopper, was found within the lower road make-up layers in Pearse Square near the church.

Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare