County: Galway Site name: Dock Road, Queen Street and Bóthar na Long, Galway
Sites and Monuments Record No.: None Licence number: 18E0628 Extension
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 530068m, N 725129m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.271879, -9.048430
Monitoring of groundworks at the development of Block A within a larger development site at the junction of Dock Road, Queen Street and Bóthar na Long, in Galway City, was carried out intermittently between 9 July and 2 September 2022. The groundworks involved in the construction of Blocks B and C within the same development had been monitored in 2019 and 2020 by the author, under the same excavation licence. Block A is an eight-storey building, located to the north-east of Blocks B and C, in the north-west part of the site adjoining Dock Road/Queen Street.
The monitoring was a condition of planning permission and was required due to the size of the proposed development site, the scale of the proposed development and its location adjacent to the constraints for Forthill Cemetery (RMP GA094-099) and the medieval town of Galway (RMP GA094-100). The site consisted of a former oil storage facility, originally a gas works which was developed in the early part of the 20th century. This part of Galway was reclaimed from Galway Bay during the post-medieval/modern period.
The groundworks consisted of twenty trial holes/pits, which were excavated by machine, followed by the piling of the site and excavation of a basement. The trial holes/pits measured 2.4-4.3m long, 1-2.8m wide and 1.7-3.8m deep. The basement, which was located along the south-western side of the new building, measured 20m north-east/south-west by 18m and was excavated to 3.1-3.8m deep.
The stratigraphy revealed during monitoring of the groundworks consisted of concrete on the surface, above a series of modern fills, a concrete slab, a concrete pad and topsoil; above grey silt with shell fragments and a grey/brown sterile clay; above boulder clay and bedrock. This was very similar stratigraphy to that revealed during the groundworks involved in the construction of the adjacent Blocks B and C. The stratigraphy and the number of modern services which were visible during the groundworks showed a site completely disturbed during its commercial development in the 20th century. Only modern, 20th-century, artefacts were recovered and nothing of archaeological significance was in evidence.
4 Lecka Grove, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, County Mayo
