County: Galway Site name: Woodquay, Galway
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA094-119---, GA094-120----, and within historic town of Galway GA094-100-- Licence number: 24E1096
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 529765m, N 725536m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.275496, -9.053061
The author was commissioned to carry out a programme of archaeological testing of a proposed development at Court Lane/St. Anthony's Place, Woodquay, Galway City.
The proposed development is located within the zone of archaeological notification for the historic town of Galway (GA094-100---). The boundary wall at the south-west corner has a notable curve (GA094-119---) and may represent the remains of a dovecote. A fragment from a 15th-17th-century window (GA094-120----) has been incorporated in the wall to the north. There are no Protected Structures or NIAH sites in the immediate vicinity of the subject site.
A cultural heritage assessment of the proposed development site was completed by the author in December 2022. The assessment recommended that a programme of archaeological testing of the site be carried out well in advance of construction.
A backhoe excavator with a bucket of 600mm width removed a thin layer of concrete and the subsurface ground was excavated to undisturbed ground where feasible. The excavated ground was assessed for the presence of archaeological features. Two east-west aligned trenches were excavated, Trench 1 measuring 10m in length and Trench 2 measuring 6m in length. A roughly north-south trench was excavated at the eastern side of the trench at a sufficient distance from the medieval wall fabric to ensure no undermining of the wall would occur. This trench (Trench 3) measured 6m in length. Due to the confined nature of the site the trench widths were reduced from an initial proposed width of 1.6m.
All machine excavations were continuously supervised.
The stratigraphy encountered was consistent throughout and comprised hard surfaces including a thin concrete to the west of the site, tiles and concrete elsewhere. These surfaces overlay a roughly 300-500mm deposit of mixed brick, clay and general rubble. This deposit in turn overlay a thick deposit of black to dark brown soft peat-like material which extended to the base of each trench. At the bottom there was a layer of undisturbed yellowish-grey marl which represents natural undisturbed material. The trenches ranged in depth from 600mm but reached depths of up to 2m in places.
No subsurface structures such as wall foundations related to the possible dovecote were observed. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
