2022:414 - BALLINROBE: Bowgate Street, Mayo

The test excavation of a site in advance of its development at Bowgate Street, Ballinrobe, County Mayo, was carried out on 20 January 2022. The proposed development consisted of an extension to a veterinary practice. The testing was necessary as the proposed development was located within the constraint for the historic town of Ballinrobe (RMP No. MA118-022) and was part of a Request for Further Information by the local authority.

The site contained an L-shaped mortared limestone building of probable 19th-century date, the northern range of which served as a veterinary surgery and eastern range of which was a vacant outhouse. To the south-east of the building was a courtyard, which was the location of the proposed extension. It was grass-covered and featureless.

The testing consisted of the excavation of three trenches, located to best cover the area of the proposed development which was accessible, in the courtyard. The trenches measured 9m, 8.9m and 7.6m long; 1.6–1.8m wide and 0.3–0.6m deep. The spoil from each trench was carefully inspected during the testing.

The stratigraphy consisted of topsoil, above a layer of cobbles and quarried stone, above fill, above an orange/brown compact clay (natural subsoil). The topsoil contained plastic, modern glass fragments and rusted metal. Cobbles were found along short, adjacent, sections of two of the trenches.

The topsoil was a recent organic build up above the cobbles and the quarried stone. The cobbles and associated fill below appeared to date from the construction of the courtyard and adjacent buildings on its northern and eastern sides in the 19th century. The quarried stone was a more recent, 20th-century, surface, which replaced the cobbled surface across much of the courtyard.

The pre-development testing revealed nothing of archaeological significance.