York Historic Environment Record

Six trial pits excavated in the rear gardens of the Mount Royale Hotel in December 2016. The archaeological evaluation was undertaken in advance of planning for a proposed housing development as the site was thought to have high archaeological potential. This was due to a number of past archaeological investigations, conducted in the area, which had found Roman burials. This evaluation revealed no evidence for Roman burials and instead revealed that there has been substantial levelling and alteration to the ground level within the terraced gardens, dating from the 19th century onwards. The archaeological deposits encountered during this evaluation were locally significant and of low archaeological importance. There is, however, still potential for significant archaeological deposits located beneath the maximum depth reached by this evaluation (approximately 1m BGL for each Trial Pit) as natural deposits were not encountered within any of the trial pits.