House — medieval in Lagavooren

A section of the town wall (see LH024-041014-) together with an area of cobbling, a small structure of unknown use and a medieval house were all uncovered in 2003 at the former Campbell's, Lakelands Dairy, and McGowan's Engineering properties and included a short street called Graves' Lane (Excavation Licence number 03E0688). The remains of the medieval house were excavated at the western end of the site, between Graves' Lane and South Quay. 'The northern wall of this house was on the edge of the river and had survived to a height of 1.68m above ground level as part of the river wall. A central round-headed doorway gave access to the river. At either end of this wall was a garderobe in a curved alcove. When the south wall of the house was excavated, a garderobe chute, perhaps from an upper floor, was found, discharging into a lintelled drain which sloped down to meet one of the garderobe chutes in the north wall. The west wall had been subjected to numerous alterations and repairs, but patches of original masonry survived above ground level, including three chamfered stones which probably originally formed the side of a window. The overall dimensions of the house were c. 20.5m by 7.5m. A number of putlog holes were visible, and one of the stone corbels which would have held the soleplates for the first floor survived. The foundations of two walls aligned with either side of the central doorway were found, and in places there were remains of a floor consisting of cobbles with a thin plaster or mortar layer over it; this appeared to be contemporary with the doorway. Behind this house were the remains of a later stone extension and some more recent brick structures, including brick floors with a thick layer of coal dust. To the south of this house, further inland from the present river edge, a post-and-wattle fence was found, forming a revetment behind which was a thick deposit of black organic soil containing wood chips and fragments of rope, textile, leather and pottery. To the north of the revetment was grey silt mixed with black organic material alternating with layers of pure silt. This revetment was not found in another trial-trench to the west, where the ground level was higher, so it must have been a small local feature straightening irregularities in the riverbank.' (Breen 2006, 329-331) Compiled by: Claire Breen Date of upload: 21 June 2013