2023:889 - St Brendan's Cathedral, Barrack Street, Loughrea, Galway

Monitoring of groundworks in the grounds of St Brendan’s Cathedral on Barrack Street, Loughrea, County Galway, was carried out on 24 and 25 May 2023. The project consisted of the construction of a single-storey extension to the existing Clonfert Museum. The monitoring was carried out as part of the planning process.

The foundation stone of St Brendan’s Cathedral was laid in 1897 with the cathedral opened in 1903. It is a protected structure and a recorded monument (RMP No. GA105-150014). The development site was located a short distance west of the cathedral, on the southern side of the museum building, partly within the cathedral car park and partly within an enclosed yard with a concrete surface.  The development site was also located within the historic town of Loughrea (RMP No. GA105-150).

The groundworks entailed excavations for a raft foundation for the extension, which measured 19.3m east-west, 6.8-10.3m north-south and 0.9-1.3m deep.

The stratigraphy encountered during the monitoring of the groundworks consisted of modern surfaces of tarmac and concrete, above modern fills, above topsoil, natural subsoils and bedrock. A number of modern services crossed the area excavated. The foundations of two adjacent modern buildings were uncovered and left in situ. Only modern artefacts were recovered. Nothing of archaeological significance was in evidence.