2020:819 - TOWNPARKS (Clonmacnowen By. - Ballinasloe), Galway, Galway

A programme of archaeological monitoring was undertaken as part of the Ballinasloe Water Services Infrastructure Upgrade and Town Enhancement Scheme (TES) in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. The project commenced in July 2018.  All groundworks for pipelaying, ducting, street level reduction etc. were  archaeologically monitored.  Remains of the now demolished 18th/19th-century former Market House and an associated well were identified in St Michael’s Square. Pits and post-holes of uncertain date and a possible 18th/19th-century burnt spread with fragments of burnt animal bone were recorded on Dunlo Street.  The most significant discovery was of several burials (dated to the late 15th – early 18th century) beneath the footpath at the base of Church Hill on Society Street; the remains of a badly disturbed well was also identified adjacent to this area. A small excavation was carried out at this location and this is the subject of a separate report (Licence 20E0330).  It was also discovered that the sixteenth-century bridge on Bridge Street (GA088-047) extended further than is visible above ground today. Cobbled areas and sections of a 17/18th-century road surface were found to have partially survived on all the streets.
Artefacts recovered during the monitoring phase of works included a seventeenth-century trade token and a James II coin dated to 1690 (from a cobbled layer on Main Street), an assemblage of fragments of 18th/19th-century glass bottles, some pottery and occasional fragments of clay pipes and stems.