County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 19 Lord Edward St.
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 94E0103
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: House - indeterminate date
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 715238m, N 733976m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.343450, -6.269396
An archaeological watching brief led to a limited excavation on a very small site (yard) at the rear of No. 19, Lord Edward St. The watching brief was made a condition of the planning approval for the construction of a single-storey extension to the existing building. The site lies within the medieval walled town of Dublin.
A small bank (1m x 3m x 0.9m deep) of archaeological material was removed before the site was first inspected and the remainder of the site had been stripped of a concrete slab. It was obvious after preliminary inspection that further removal of archaeological material was inevitable. The ground beneath the pre-existing concrete slab required a small reduction in level to provide sufficient depth for the formation beneath the floor of the new structure. Also further material had to be excavated out of three pits under adjacent walls due to an unforeseen requirement to underpin them. Accordingly, a small-scale rescue excavation and recording of the exposed sections and reduced under-floor surface was undertaken. The supervision and recording on site was undertaken by Linzi Simpson.
The excavated area had maximum dimensions of 3.2m north-south by 4.15m east-west in the back-yard of the existing house. The construction of the yard, in the mid 18th/early 19th century, had already removed some archaeological material but the bank of material described above had survived as a 'high spot' along the southern boundary wall. The archaeological deposits were steeply sloped northwards.
The levelling of the site prior to inspection had resulted in the removal of approximately 0.9m of archaeological material along the southern boundary wall while a maximum of 0.2m was removed along the northern side.
The deposits had been reduced to an overall level of 9.47m OD at the southern end and 9.2m OD at the northern end with a further 0.2-0.3m to be removed to accommodate a new flooring level.
The depth of archaeological material left in situ could not be determined since only a small portion of material had to be removed. The remaining layers were sealed with a deposit of 'lean-mix' and concreted over.
The material revealed at this site can be related to the results from the much larger excavation further east directed by Martin Byrne in 1992 (Excavation 1992, 18–19). Although the site under discussion was very small in square area (max. 4m x 4m available for excavation) it did reveal habitation levels in situ.
Within this very small area five phases of activity were recognised and portions of three structures and four pits were excavated. No ceramics were retreived and there were no datable finds or timbers suitable for dendro dating.
The exposed section along the southern boundary provided evidence for a series of post and wattle structures with layers of sod flooring and organic habitation layers. The complete lack of any pottery finds in these deposits suggests they may be of pre-Norman date.
A hearth and clay floor associated with post and wattle fences suggest habitation. There was no evidence for industrial activity.
No firm details about property orientation could be gleaned, because of the very small size of the area investigated. However, the walls of one structure were probably the western wall of a property with the inside of the house lying to the east. This would respect the line of Castle St. and confirm a north-south orientation. In support of this the 13th-century property boundaries, described in the documentary sources, do record a north-south orientation at Castle St. That this was a reflection of a much earlier pattern was confirmed by a north-south orientation located in the large-scale excavations at Castle St. in 1992 dating to the Viking period.
In addition to this, the location of another fence on almost the same line at a later, overlying level, indicated that the property boundary position remained constant over time. The structures revealed did not appear to be influenced by the curving line of Cow Lane further west.
There were very few finds recovered during this exercise. Animal bones and shell were generally present, but were not sampled. One small bronze pin with a flattened expanded head was recovered from the habitation layer, F12, associated with Structure A; a parallel and date for it has not yet been established.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd., Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
