1993:063 - DUBLIN: 16-17 Cooke St., Dublin

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 16-17 Cooke St.

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 92E0083

Author: Rosanne Meenan

Site type: Historic town

Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)

ITM: E 714950m, N 734080m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.344446, -6.273680

These excavations were funded by the developers, McDermott & O'Farrell, who planned to build apartments.

The 20m x 4m dimensions of the cutting were laid down by a decision of An Bord Pleanála and it proved possible to bring the south end of the cutting to virtually the line of the present footpath on Cook St. thereby ensuring that the modern street frontage be tested. Therefore, the southernmost 6m of the cutting was undisturbed by the trial trench which had been dug in June 1992 (Excavations 1992, 20).Two general phases of activity were identified:

Phase 1:
The boulder clay was exposed at a depth of c. 4m below the present street level. It consisted of a very hard-packed, dark grey sandy/gravelly boulder clay. A succession of deposits were excavated which indicated that this area had formed part of the shoreline of the river, subject to flooding and the action of tides. A series of sand and gravel layers were interspersed with layers with organic content: the former indicated natural deposition by water while the latter represented human activity though this may have been sporadic or of low intensity. The stratigraphy here was 1.8m-2m deep.

A small number of wattle features were found; they were either associated with pits or dumps of cess, apart from one which may have been the wall of a structure, but as only one wall was exposed and as no hearth or other internal features were present it was not possible to attribute a function to it. The finding of the remains of a boat supported the identification of the area as original shoreline. 12th–13th century pottery was found in these deposits.

The excavation exposed the corner of F151, a stone building dug through the earlier stratigraphy. No trench cut could be identified and as the strata were similar on both sides of the wall it was proposed that a trench had been cut and that the stones were then packed down into the trench and pushed out to each of its edges. The stones were not mortared and the faces were not well finished which would tend to suggest that the wall had not been free standing. It was 1m approximately wide and survived to a depth of 1.8m high and was cut through the earlier stratigraphy to that depth. A possible floor level was identified. While there was no dating evidence for this wall the absence of any late medieval or post-medieval finds from any level below the top course of masonry would tend to suggest a medieval date. A sherd of medieval roof tile was used to fill a gap between two courses of stone near the bottom. The building's function was not clear but it may have been a house, probably fronting on to Cook St.

Finds comprised two gilt pins, pottery (local and imported), leather and wooden objects including a virtually complete wooden blade 0.45m long and flattened along one end. One ship's timber was found lying flat. The largest find was the remains of a boat, approximately 4m long x 0.7m wide. The planks were fitted into the keel along one side.

Phase 2
This phase was represented by a stratigraphy c.2m deep of late post-medieval activity. A series of stone drains was found at the south end of the cutting, probably associated with the later houses whose walls were also found there. The lowest of the drains was laid on top of the north-south wall of the stone structure (F151) described above and was mortared on to it.

Fragments of worked sandstone were recovered from the Phase 2 build-up. These may have been deposited at the end of the 16th century when there was a refurbishment of Christchurch Cathedral (Roger Stalley pers. comm.).

Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath