2007:518 - ISLANDBRIDGE: Clancy Barracks, South Circular Road, Dublin

The demolition of modern structures along the river frontage at Clancy Barracks opened up an area that had not been previously investigated; the contractor thus requested the presence of an archaeologist to monitor the opening of six trenches across the area (Trenches A–F), ostensibly to investigate the presence of gravels.

It was found that a deposit of grey/black silty clay extended across the very northern part of the site along a strip up to 25m in width (north–south) and possibly covered the full 170m width of the site at this point. The deposit directly overlay the natural alluvial gravels and silts and was sealed by post-medieval dumping of redeposited subsoil and large backfilled gravel pits. Towards the centre of the area, where the deposit was darkest and at its thickest (up to 0.6m in depth), worked timbers and strands of wattle were present (Trenches C and D). Elsewhere, to the east and to the west, wattle was recorded in the same deposit.

The deposit is located at 3.6–4.5m underneath the concrete ground slab at c. 0m OD and was initially thought to date to the Viking period.

A death date of AD 595 from two samples of worked timber was subsequently obtained from the Department of Archaeology and Palaeoecology at QUB, indicating that the material may in fact be associated with the early Christian site of Kylmehanok.

The site was later excavated by Kevin Lohan (see No. 519, Excavations 2007).