2021:013 - ARDEE: Irish Street, Louth

Archaeological test trenching as part of an Assessment was carried out in the gardens of two terraced houses on Irish Street. The site is located immediately north of (outside) the medieval town wall of Ardee.

Excavation was carried out by a mini-digger, with a toothless bucket.

A wall footing ran along the northern side of Trench 1 for most of its length, c.5m. The south face of the wall was c.0.4m south of the northern edge of the trench, and roughly parallel to the cut. It was made of limestone blocks, up to 0.2m long, and a maximum height of 0.3m, comprised of a maximum of three courses. The mortar in the wall appeared to be lime in nature. No finds or other dateable material were associated with the wall.

The reminder of the trenches contained a large amount of redeposited material, none of which was archaeological in nature. There were deep deposits of rubble, including concrete, and other modern material.

Six trenches were excavated, to depths varying between 1.2m and 2m. Undisturbed subsoil was not observed at those depths in any of the trenches, except perhaps in the eastern part of Trench 6. It was not possible to go to sufficient depth, with the machine employed, to reach undisturbed subsoil.

The site is located where one would expect to find the Town Ditch of Ardee, north of the northern part of the Town wall.

No material of an archaeological nature was disclosed by the testing.