County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 28–29 Francis Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0223
Author: Helen Kehoe, for Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 714826m, N 733826m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.342192, -6.275633
Archaeological monitoring was carried out on a site at 28–29 Francis Street on 1 August 1996. An archaeological assessment had been carried out in April 1996 by Tim Coughlan (see Excavations 1996, No. 92) in order to establish the nature of the archaeological remains on the site.
The assessment established that the only area of archaeological potential was located at the eastern portion of the site, extending beneath 1.8m of post-medieval and later deposits. The proposed works on the site involved strip foundations consisting of four trenches, two east-west and two north-south, around the four sides of the site. The strip foundations were 400mm thick, cast on concrete fill poured into 1.3m-wide trenches up to 2.5m deep.
The mechanical clearance of the overburden did not reveal any evidence for structural remains. Although no deep archaeological deposits were noted in the foundation trenches, sherds of medieval pottery were retrieved from organic and clay deposits in the northern and southern foundation trenches, and the eastern trench revealed a cobbled surface dating from the post-medieval period.
The pit located 1.4m below ground level in the southern trench may be related to that revealed in Trench 4 of the site assessment, and similar finds were identified from both. The northern trench revealed a clay deposit, 0.3m thick at a depth of 1.9m below ground level, which was removed by hand. No further archaeological works were carried out on the site.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd. Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
