County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: Royal College of Surgeons, York St./Mercer St.
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0174
Author: Martin Reid
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 715620m, N 733538m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.339432, -6.263808
The development of this site for a multi-storey carpark motivated the College to commission an archaeological site assessment. The work took place on 20 August 1995. The approx. area of the site is 47m x 42m in extent. Three test-trenches were excavated by mechanical digger, two north-south and one east-west across the site. At the base of all three trenches and over the sandy gravel or boulder clay was a waterlogged deposit of greenish-brown clay. The deposit was 0.2–1.2m thick and 1.6–2.6m below ground level. The sparse finds contained in it included animal bones, sea-shells (periwinkles, oysters, limpets, mussels), and several red clay roof-tiles, including one fragment of a glazed medieval roof-tile. The post-medieval cellars of 18th-19th-century tenements directly overlay the clay and no intermediate cut features or deposits were observed within the test-trenches.
It was concluded that the earliest deposits represent the buildup of waterborne silts in an area of undeveloped marshland. No further archaeological excavation was recommended.
32 Rathgar Ave., Dublin 6
