2019:670 - FERNS: Upper Main Street, Wexford

From 17 July to 23 August 2019 monitoring of water mains rehabilitation work took place along Upper Main Street in the historic core of Ferns, Co. Wexford.

Excavations took place in proximity to Ferns Castle (WX015-003001-), a National Monument in state guardianship, and within the Zone of Archaeological Potential for the historic town of Ferns (WX015-003-).

The water-mains trench was excavated along the north side of Upper Main Street following the line of a previous water-main, with perpendicular trenches across the street at either end to tie-in to the pre-existing mains. Short perpendicular ‘off-shoot’ trenches were also excavated from the mains trench to connect to properties fronting the street. Excavated trenches measured between 0.6-1m in width, and 1.1–1.5m in depth, with the principle trench measuring approximately 200m in length.

Excavated material varied between the south-east and north-west ends of the trench. Towards the south-east of the street, beginning above the N11 roundabout, excavated material consisted of c. 0.1–0.25m of road surface and gravel foundation, above mid-brown stony clay, which continued below the base of the trench. The trench was cut frequently by existing services. After approximately half the length of the trench, just west of the entrance road to Rosemary Heights and the Garda Station, the excavated ground began to change considerably, with increasingly shallow shale-type bedrock. At the approximate halfway point there was between 0.2-0.5m of mid-brown stony clay between the road surface and the bedrock; the clay deposit became shallower as the trench progressed to the north-west, eventually disappearing entirely. For at least the final 50m of the excavations at the west end, the road surface lay directly on bedrock, without any gravel foundation or clay deposits.

Although previous archaeological excavations in the town have revealed considerable evidence of medieval remains associated with Ferns Castle, no finds, features or deposits of archaeological significance were exposed during the water mains rehabilitation works on Upper Main Street.