County: Galway Site name: Galway City Gas Mains
Sites and Monuments Record No.: Within GA094-100---, Historic Town of Galway Licence number: Ministerial Consent C001074, E005368 and R000565
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 529890m, N 725098m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.271577, -9.051091
Moore Group was commissioned by Gas Networks Ireland to carry out a programme of archaeological monitoring of the installation of a gas main at various locations within the historic town of Galway. The works had the potential to impact on the Town's Medieval Defences (SMR GA094-100001--).
The groundworks, undertaken by GMC Ltd., were carried out between January and April 2022 at the following locations:
Area 1 - Merchant's Road between Cross Street and Fort Hill Street.
Area 2 - Bridge Street including O’Brien’s Bridge.
Area 3 – Lombard Street, Bowling Green, Mary Street.
Area 1 intersected with the conjectural line of a Jacobite era defensive earthwork dating to 1689-91, which crosses Merchant’s Road.
Area 2 along Bridge Street intersects within the zone of notification for a 17th-century ravelin guarding the outer west gate and three sites including a bridge (GA094-100031--), the Bridge mills and water mill (GA094-100051, GA094-104002).
Area 3 along Bowling Green and intersected with the conjectural line of the town wall and passed west of St Nicholas’ Church impacting within the zones of notification for a Bridge and a Mill (GA094-100034- & GA094-100048--).
Features identified along Merchant's Road include a poorly sorted cobbled surface found opposite No. 12, the Dockgate building, and a wall foundation at the junction of New Dock Street west of Market Square Building (occupied by Grant Thornton).
Two subsurface features were noted during groundworks at Bridge Street. Both were found in the vicinity of the eastern canal bridge. The features comprised a stone-built foundation east of the canal bridge and a metalled surface to the west of the canal.
In advance of the pipelaying at Bowling Green a test trench was excavated on 7 March 2022 at the bend of the road in the Bowling Green to identify the precise location of the town wall. The location of this trench was informed by cartographic sources, as detailed in the IHTA and the 17th-century Pictorial Map, indicating that the corner of Bowling Green was near the site of Alexander’s Tower and a section of the town wall that ran along the edge of the Little Gate River. Testing in the centre of the carriageway, 5.9m west of no. 25 Bowling Green, identified an 800mm-wide wall crossing the trench from south to north at a depth of 800mm below the modern ground surface. This wall was photographed and recorded, and provision was made to avoid any direct impacts and preserve the section of wall in situ by covering the wall with a layer of sand and terram and raising the gas pipeline over the wall.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
