2022:320 - St Joseph’s Hospital Campus, Mulgrave Street, Spital-Land, Limerick, Limerick

Test excavations took place here on 3 October 2022. Trenches were excavated by a 13 tonne mechanical excavator using a grading bucket under constant archaeological supervision. Topsoil was a dark loose sandy clay. While generally 0.4-0.5m in depth, it was over a metre deep at points in Trench 1 and reflected accumulation of introduced soil along the eastern margin of the site over many years. The topsoil was shallower in the southern sections of each trench near the internal access road and appears likely the result of construction activity associated with the development of the facilities here in recent decades. Subsoil on the site was a yellow and orange/brown stoney sandy clay. An old ceramic water/sewer pipe was encountered in the northern part of Trench 1 while the buried remains of a 19th- or early 20th-century track/roadway were encountered in Trench 1. The remains of a broad ditch or drain filled with large limestone rocks ran roughly north-west/south-east along the northern part of Trench 1. No field boundaries were recorded on early edition OSI mapping at this location. Consequently, this feature is interpreted as a large drain. The first edition OS map (1835) has the name ‘Blackbog Turnpike’ in the area that morphed into ‘Blackboys Road’ by the time of the 25” map (1888-1913). This suggests the presence of a wet or boggy area in the vicinity that would have necessitated the digging of such large drainage ditches. No features, finds or material of archaeological significance was identified during the course of test excavations.

Unit 1 Tenure Business Park, Monasterboice, Drogheda, Co. Louth A92 K2VF