2007:465 - DUBLIN: 10–13 Castle Street, Dublin

The development site at 10–13 Castle Street is located on the southern side of street within the core of the medieval walled city. It is bordered on the east by the Castle Steps (built after the 1798 Rebellion to improve security around the castle) and on the south by the medieval graveyard of St Werburgh’s. This end of the medieval settlement (eastern) of Dublin is probably the earliest and previous excavations along the northern side of the street have revealed over 3m of compacted stratigraphy containing Viking Age deposits from the 10th to the 12th century. The site measures c. 30m north–south by 15m wide at the southern end, widening to 20m at the northern end, but only the eastern side, an open carpark, was available for testing, which took place in June 2007.

The site is bordered on the eastern side by a large wall (the western boundary of the Castle Steps). It stands 2.8m in height high at the northern end, reducing to 1.1m in height at the southern, and has the remains of an infilled ope at the northern end, possibly a fireplace, which had been filled with modern yellow brick. Rocque’s 1756 map of Dublin depicts a series of small dwellings fronting on to what was then a laneway called ‘Cole Alley’, subsequently replaced by the Castle Steps. The eastern boundary wall can be dated stylistically to the late 17th/early 18th century and was originally presumably part of these structures, although there were no window or door features. This may indicate that this wall represents the rear (east) of the buildings rather than the front. The southern boundary wall, bordering the graveyard (1.1m lower in level than the site), can also be dated to the late 17th/early 18th century in date and was originally part of a brick building, which presumably also fronted on to Cole Alley. It stands 1.1m in height by 0.5m in width and is of brick, but this has been concrete rendered. The northern boundary is a modern concrete wall standing 2.8m in height, while the western walls forms the side wall of a warehouse and is rendered in concrete.

Two trenches were excavated to a depth of 4m by a mini-digger (restricted by height of gate) at the southern and northern end of the site and these revealed deep deposits of rubble and post-medieval clay, although neither trench was bottomed. Several cellar walls were also found in situ. The remainder of the site remains untested, but there is a high risk that the cellar deposits noted at the eastern half (the carpark) of the site do not extend westwards, as Rocque’s map of 1756 shows the central area of the site, to the rear of the houses fronting on to Castle Street and Cole Alley, as undeveloped. Further work on this site is anticipated.