2023:545 - Taylor's Bar, 5-7 Dominick Street, Townparks, Galway, Galway

A programme of archaeological testing of a proposed development at 5-7 Dominick Street, Galway City was undertaken. Taylor’s Bar (No. 7) is a protected structure (RPS 3302). While the proposed development site is mostly located within the area of constraint for the Historic town of Galway (GA094-100–), it is located outside the medieval town and no recorded monuments are located on the site. A set of limestone steps, a shoeing stone and jostle stone are recorded along Pump Lane which borders the northern end of the site.

The proposed development will consist of alterations to and extension of an existing commercial premises (Taylor’s Bar) to include for demolition of two adjacent premises and the construction of a new four-storey structure incorporating an extension of the existing bar at No. 7 Dominick Street Upper to the ground and first floor levels of Nos 5 & 6 Dominick Street Upper with apartment and canteen provisions on the upper floors.  The plan also proposes a basement level to the rear of the existing premises at No. 7 Dominick Street Upper.

The site faces onto Dominick Street Upper and is bordered to the east by a three-storey structure and to the west by a pitched two-storey building. The rear yard (now used as open space/beer garden as part of public house) to the north of the properties faces north onto Eglington Canal and west onto Pump Lane.  The rear yard/beer garden area, which is delimited by a modern concrete block wall, is accessed via a doorway leading onto Pump Lane.

As the existing buildings are occupied, testing was carried out in the beer garden to the rear of the buildings at the location of the proposed basement area. It was initially proposed to excavate 2 test trenches. However, the testing regime design was reduced to one east-west aligned trench due to space restrictions and the presence of existing live services passing from west to east along the southern part of the beer garden.

Testing at the site was carried out in cloudy conditions on 25 September 2023. The trench was excavated by a backhoe mini-excavator fitted with a 1m-wide bucket that removed concrete and underlying deposits to natural subsoil; the excavated ground was then assessed for the presence of archaeological features. The trench was aligned roughly east-west and measured 5m in length. All machine excavations were continuously supervised.

The stratigraphy encountered consisted of tarmac, a mixed rubble fill extending to a depth of 1.1m below which was a black, organic deposit (500mm in thickness). Below the black, organic deposit was a sterile, white-yellow marl/clay at the base of the trench. The rubble fill contained occasional fragments of red and yellow brick, mixed angular rubblestone, sand and clay. There was evidence of cobbles in places below the tarmac but not in situ or in sufficient numbers to form a feature. A modern drain/pipe traversed the trench from north to south. No features were in evidence.