County: Wexford Site name: Rosbercon, New Ross
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WX029-013 Licence number: 24E0104
Author: Maeve McCormick
Site type: Post-medieval friary
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 671424m, N 627777m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.396859, -6.950509
Test excavation was undertaken on lands at Rosbercon, New Ross, Co. Wexford on 6 February 2024. A total of 7 trenches were excavated across the site (138 linear meters).
The northern half of the site is located within the Zone of Notification for the Historic town of Rosbercon, Irishtown and New Ross (WX029-013). Both the 1st Edition OS map (1837) and the 3rd Edition OS map (1888-1910) show the northern section of the subject area to be labelled ‘Rosbercon Abbey (site of)’. The exact extent and location of this abbey is not fully known although excavation has found some walls and burials below Thomastown Road. There were no previous archaeological investigations undertaken within the subject area, however, Excavation 95E0086 (1995:277) took place during a pipe-laying scheme across Thomastown Road. The works uncovered stone walls and evidence for several phases of burial suggesting it is related to the Dominican Friary.
The site had been levelled and landscaped with two separate dumps of light brown silty clay which overlay deep spoil dumps up to 3m in depth. These spoil dumps appear to have originated during road works as they contained tarmac, roadside kerbing and modern refuse and debris. The excavation of Trenches 1, 2, 3 & 6, to the middle and south of the site, were impacted by the depth of the spoil dump which required them to be substantially shortened for safety due to the ingress of water leading to the collapse of trench edges.
Trench 4 & 5 were located to the north of the site in the area which could possibly contain buried archaeological features or structures associated with the Friary (WX029-013007). Trenches 4 and 5 were joined into one long trench in response to the constraints of the dense vegetation in that area. A stone-filled pit or rubble dump (C11), a north-west/south-east aligned foundation wall (C14) and a north-east/south-west aligned foundation wall (C15) were uncovered within this trench, all of which contained red brick fragments and tableware pottery.
A second rubble dump (C13) within a compact yellow brown sandy clay matrix was also noted within Trench 4 & 5. There was no discernible wall within the rubble. It measured 0.5m deep x 4.6m long and contained no datable inclusions. This layer was directly beneath C12, a compact yellow sandy clay layer which contained frequent mortar and red brick inclusions (max 0.25m deep). It is possible this rubble could be related to the Friary.
Further works were recommended.
Archer Heritage Planning, Unit 1, Tenure Business Park, Co Louth A92 K2VF
