County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 30–32 Earl St. South
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0041
Author: Claire Walsh
Site type: Religious house - Augustinian canons and Mill - unclassified
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 714026m, N 733826m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.342365, -6.287639
A short ten-day archaeological excavation in advance of development at a site at Earl St. South, in the Dublin Liberties, uncovered part of the southern precinct of St Thomas's Abbey. The excavation was funded by the developers, Zoe Developments Ltd.
The abbey boundary in this area was formed by a ditch, almost 2.5m deep, which varied from 7m to 10m in width. The ditch was dug initially in the late 12th century, and artefacts from this period were uncovered from the lowest levels. Sometime in the 14th century the ditch was infilled with sterile clays suitable for building on, and a stone wall was constructed along the line of the earlier ditch. A smaller ditch was then dug outside the wall. Only the footings of the wall survived. Several decorated medieval ceramic floor-tiles were amongst the artefacts recovered: these derived from refurbishment to the abbey church in the Middle Ages, and include several previously unknown patterns.
The Abbey of St Thomas the Martyr (Thomas Court) was founded in 1177, and became the most powerful of the ecclesiastical foundations in the medieval city. The considerable lands were granted to William Brabazon in 1545. In Speed's 1610 map of Dublin, the site of the former abbey, marked as Thomas Court, is depicted as a series of walled enclosures, with gates and buildings. By the time of Roque's map of 1756, all traces of the abbey precincts had been eliminated.
15 St Brigid's Rd Upper, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
