1993:061 - DUBLIN: Church St./Bow St., Dublin

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: Church St./Bow St.

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0026

Author: Beth Cassidy, A.D.S. Ltd.

Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous

Period/Dating: Multi-period

ITM: E 714751m, N 734514m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.348387, -6.276510

In March of 1993 a trench 16m x 6m was opened in an area immediately adjacent to the south wall of St Michan's Graveyard. This was in the yard of Maguire & Patterson and preceded planned development by Slemming Ltd. for a new office block to service the Bar Council. The trench was closed after only a week as planning decisions were pending change and the excavation proper was not restarted until July 1993.

The location of the trench was further to site investigations by Dr Neil O'Flannagan, which highlighted this area as one where the proposed development was likely to disturb/destroy archaeological material.* The findings were archaeologically poor but environmentally rich, as the excavation revealed a series of disturbed deposits dating from the 14th century to modern times, overlying natural gravels.

The archaeological deposits were disturbed immediately below present ground surface with 18th- and 19th-century industrial activity–iron smelting. Beneath was a layer of redeposited material dating from the 13th/14th–18th centuries, and included pan tiles, clay pipes, scraffito ware and occasional green glazed medieval pottery sherds. This material seemed to be part of a mixing and dumping sequence that could have taken place repeatedly over centuries while this area was free of buildings. The homogenous fill (c. 1.2m deep across the site) was similar to material described elsewhere on urban Dublin sites as 'garden soil' and contained no definite stratigraphic horizons. However, its origin and function may have something to do with the natural gravels it overlay. The gravels extended to a depth of c. 5m + and were free from sand/soil inclusion. This may indicate their origin as part of a fast free-flowing river, the course of the Liffey before the last Ice Age, or as part of beaching gravels to do with present water systems.

The important factor in the consideration of the gravels is their possible effect on settlement in this area. The gravel depth and lack of soil retention would have resulted in a free draining surface which would have required constant soil importation to increase fertility/moisture (the gravels being so deep that any water passing through would not undergo the normal re-absorption due to sun acting on the surface). Indeed the unusual conditions seen here may account for the preserved Knight currently resting in the vaults beneath St Michan's church. The south wall of St Michan's was seen to be resting directly on the gravel surface, hence the 'garden soil'/settlement debris accumulation we encountered postdates 1038 when the wall was built. The presence of a gravel ridge here on Church St. may have been a major factor in the decision to locate the first fording point on the river Liffey at its southern end, as passage across the river would be most favourable if it was a sure route from dry ground on the south to dry ground on the north. Hence the location of one of the great roads of Ireland on the line of Church St. may have been particularly because of the gravel ridge and indeed the development of a medieval community at St Michan's also may be due to this factor.

*Editor's note: It is hoped to include this report in the Bulletin for 1994 as it did not arrive in time to be included in this publication.

Power House, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4