1996:079 - DUBLIN: 27–31 Church Street, Dublin

Pre-demolition archaeological test excavation was undertaken in advance of a planning application in August 1996. The site is located directly across the road from St Michan's, which was the only parish church on the north side of the Liffey until the foundation of St Mary's and St Paul's in the late seventeenth century. St Michan's was founded in the late eleventh or early twelfth century, but the existing church was built in 1685–6 and extensively modified in 1828. John Speed's map of Dublin (1610) shows a row of houses fronting onto the present Church Street opposite St Michan's Church. The site was subsequently developed as a forge in the early eighteenth century and the metalworking tradition has prevailed here to the present day. The open part of the site is now used as a temporary carpark.

The site measures approximately 35m north-south by 55m east-west, but much of this area was covered with buildings and was therefore unavailable for testing. Two trial-trenches (1.35m wide) were mechanically excavated.

Trench I, which ran for 25m in an east-west direction, was located dose to the northern boundary wall, while Trench 2, 35m long, was centrally located. Underlying the tarmacadam surface and rubble overburden (0.5m deep) there was 1.5–2m of archaeological deposits. The deposits in Trench I were truncated by large pits filled with redeposited iron-stained reddish-brown clays. These pits were obviously associated with eighteenth- or nineteenth-century industrial activity relating to the development of the iron foundry. The undisturbed stratigraphy was remarkably consistent across the site. A dark greyish-brown clayey sand (0.5m deep) with moderate inclusions of animal bone, slate, mortar, oyster shell, flecks of charcoal and medieval and post-medieval pottery sherds overlay a mid-brown silty sand (1m deep) with occasional inclusions of animal bone, shells, cobbles, flecks of charcoal and medieval pottery sherds. This overlay a deposit of silty sand (0.15m deep) with frequent inclusions of shell (cockles and mussels), moderate animal bone, fish bone, flecks of charcoal and occasional medieval pottery sherds.

A large deposit of shell was encountered 8m from the east end of Trench 2. The deposit extended east-west and was 3.5m wide. It had a maximum thickness of 0.5m at the centre, lensing out to 0.1m at east and west.