County: Dublin Site name: SWORDS: Bridge Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E244 ext.
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 718925m, N 747023m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.459830, -6.209135
Additional archaeological test-trenching was carried out on this site in an area to be crossed by the insertion of services on the access road/street frontage area of the proposed Health Centre development at Swords, Dublin. Three test-trenches were opened using a mechanical excavator on 15 March 1996.
One 5m-long trench was opened north/south along the riverfront wall, the second was opened as close to the street front as possible along the western boundary, and the third was opened further north. The difference in level between the Health Centre site and the adjacent, higher and sloping site measures between 0.2m at the street front and 1.2m towards the present gateway into the site.
The profiles revealed in the three trenches suggested that no structural remains of a house depicted in Brewer’s Beauties of Ireland (close to the bridge across the Ward River) were present. However, an examination of the boundary between the access area and the site itself revealed the foundations of a recently demolished cottage, which may represent the remains of a house depicted in Grose’s Antiquities. These remains consisted of the partly demolished southern gable wall with a fireplace and a very low stump of the west wall of a structure 12.5m long and 5m wide. The clay and mortared stone walls were just 500mm thick. The fireplace survived as two projecting piers, 0.5m by 0.5m, with the fireplace 1.2m wide between them. No other internal features or partitions were evident,
The trenching indicated that the insertion of the proposed new services in the area would not reach the old ground level on the east but would cut through very disturbed fill on a truncated old ground level on the west. There were evident archaeological implications for these additional aspects of the proposed scheme. The presence of a thick concrete slab across the central portion of the site on which a number of (occupied) caravans were parked precluded archaeological test-trenching in this area. The site was inspected during the insertion of foundations and an old ground level was revealed in the central area. This consisted of a dark brown garden soil which was up to 1m thick and contained sherds of medieval pottery and a fragment of a glazed floor tile.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd. Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
