2022:387 - Monck Street and Commercial Quay, Wexford, Wexford

The client, Wexford County Council, through Tony Kirwan Civil Engineering Ltd, undertook Enhancement Works on Monck Street and a section of Commercial Quay (south pedestrian path). The project was conducted as Part 8 Development. The area of works involved Monck Street in its entirety (c.85m) and some 30m along south side of Commercial Quay immediately to east of Monck Street as well as up to 15m to west of Monck Street on Commercial Quay. It involved monitoring of removal of street features, fixtures and furniture and retention of same should any be deemed as having historical value. Subsequent to removal of existing ducts and gullies and infilling of some with concrete, archaeological monitoring entailed trench excavation throughout the length of the scheme for ESB, Eir, drainage services, etc. The ensemble received new street surfaces, which entailed removal of existing surfaces and bedding elements.
The works, which took place between 30 March and 21 July 2022, achieved depths of 0.4-0.5m, with some deeper utility service excavation of 1m. For the most part the stratigraphy consisted of modern bedding and stone fill layers. Both the north and south sides of Monck Street, abutting the buildings, retained lenses and pockets of grey brown organic silt, in which animal bone, oyster shells, a fragment of medieval floor tile, a possible fragment of roof tile of possible medieval date, and three pieces of clay tobacco pipe were retrieved. Analysis of the materials and artefacts retrieved from the ground works demonstrates that the central element of the street was extensively altered by the extraction of the original street materials and replacement with modern entities and bedding material. The street borders, however, still retained original material beneath the concrete footpaths. While these deposits and materials were post-medieval and part of the street consolidation as urban expansion of the town, dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, they became mixed with later materials dating to the early 20th century.

Dunburbeg, Clonmel Road, Cashel, Co. Tipperary