2026:115 - Bolton Street to William Street, Burgagery Lands West, Clonmel, Tipperary

Archaeological monitoring took place of the replacement of 1,382m of existing 75mm and 100mm CI watermains including any associated assets required with 180mm HDPE and 125mm HDPE watermains. The works were located along public streets within Clonmel town centre – Kickham Street, Catherine Street, Gladstone Street, Upper Gladstone Street, Morton Street, William Street, Mary Street, Bolton Street and Cashel Street. The work took place between 3 December 2025 and 14 May 2026.

It involved an open-cut or box trench excavation. This entailed mechanical excavation to depths of 0.6m to 1.2m. For the most part trench widths were between 0.6m and 1m. This broadened to between 2.5m and 4m at locations where junctions and manholes occurred.

• The stratigraphy of the ground works varied throughout the scheme’s length, although it tended to remain consistent within the general street locations or sections of each street. It consisted of:
• 1m tarmac; onto 0.2mm road bedding; onto grey brown gravelly clay silt for remainder.
• 3m; tarmac 0.3-0.4m; onto road substrate/crushed mortar and demolition material; onto 0.4-0.7m pinkish crushed mortar and demolition material; onto dark brown clay silt for remainder.
• 1–0.15m concrete; onto grey sand gravel for remainder.
• 1m tarmac onto 0.2–0.4m grey sand gravel; onto grey brown or orange grey silt for remainder.
• 1m tarmac onto 0.2–0.4m grey sand gravel; 0.4m sandstone rubble; onto dark grey clay silt.
• 1m tarmac over 0.1m stone chip over 0.2m demolition rubble containing mortar and red brick fragments; over 0.3-0.5m greyish-brown silty clay; over reddish-brown sandy clay natural to base.
• 25m tarmac onto 0.4m grey stone and sand bedding; onto dark orange silty clay and stone for remainder.
• 1m tarmac onto 0.14m lemix; onto orange red silty clay for remainder. Truncated by services. 19th- to 20th-century building debris consisting of rubble stone, red brick and slate.
• 15m lemix onto yellow-brown gritty sand with stone; onto grey-brown gritty sand and stone for remainder.
• 1m tarmac onto western half of 0.2m lemix; onto 0.3m concrete rubble; onto grey brown clay for the remainder. Eastern half 0.2m lemix onto 0.2m concrete onto gritty grey-brown sandy garden soil onto orange sandy clay for the remainder. Both halves separated by 0.25m-wide random rubble sandstone wall from depth of 0.6m. Original 19^th-century garden wall.

The William Street works revealed wall foundations exposed in the northern trench wall that were not impacted upon. This consisted of random rubble sandstone wall typically of two to three courses and bonded by a compact or hard grey mortar with flecks of stone and red brick. This was consistent with c. 19^th-century wall composition. This wall had been disturbed by other existing works and service lines throughout the line of the trench. Several collapsed or disturbed remains of stone box drains were also encountered on William Street.

A random rubble stone boundary wall was found following or paralleling the eastern side of Mary Street. This was encountered on east to west orientated trenches set as perpendicular offsets to the principal north to south trench. It consisted of 0.25m-wide random rubble sandstone wall with compact or hard grey mortar. The east side of the wall retained gritty grey-brown sandy garden soil onto natural orange sandy clay, while the western side was composed of 0.3m concrete rubble onto grey-brown silty clay. Its dimensions, composition and abutting soils demonstrate a c. 18^th or 19^th-century garden or property boundary wall.

No archaeology was encountered.