2019:200 - No. 1 Charleton Hill, New Ross, Wexford

Test excavations were carried out at No. 1 Charleton Hill, New Ross, Co. Wexford in response to a planning condition (Planning Ref. 2019/0116).

No. 1 Charleton Hill is located in an urban residential setting in New Ross town, sited on the south side of Lower William Street, at its intersection with Charleton Hill. It adjoins No. 2 Charleton Hill, which sits on the corner of Lower William Street and Charleton Hill. An existing 20th-century house is located on the property and it was proposed to erect an attached dwelling house in the associated garden. Lower William Street follows the alignment of the town's medieval defences, and also forms the northern boundary of the townland of Southknock. As such, the site is located immediately outside the zone of archaeological potential connected with the historic town of New Ross (WX029-013----).

Five test trenches were excavated; these measured 1.45m in width, 3.2-8.5m in length and 0.25-1.1m in depth. Excavated material consisted of 0.25-0.45m of sod and topsoil overlying a mid-brown silty clay subsoil <0.5m in depth overlying natural orange-brown silty clay with frequent areas of natural sedimentary bedrock. No features of archaeological significance were identified during test excavation on the site. The nature of two features identified in Trench 5 to the rear of the site was confirmed, on the basis of recovered finds, to be modern. A number of late 17th- and 18th-century ceramic sherds, in addition to clay pipe stems, were recovered in Trench 3 and Trench 4, in association with 19th- and 20th-century ceramic and glass. The finds are indicative of late 17th- and 18th-century activity in the area, but were not associated with identifiable archaeological features on site. It was concluded that no sub-surface features or remains of archaeological significance would be impacted upon by the proposed development.

Unit 39a, Hebron Business Park, Hebron Road, Kilkenny