1997:098 - DALKEY: Our Lady's Hall, Castle Street, Dublin

The site lies in the centre of Dalkey town and is located on the southern side of Castle Street. It can be divided into three separate areas.

Area 1 consisted of the northernmost 7.5m of the site fronting onto Castle Street. A three-storey 19th-century hall has been retained as part of the development in this area and the existing floor remains intact. The building activity from which the construction arose took place here. The ground slopes down from the southern end of the site to Castle Street. The boulder clay was reduced by 0.9m in the 19th century so that it was level with the northern street-front portion of the site. Natural boulder clay and a granite outcrop were exposed immediately under the concrete slab in the yard.

Area 2, located immediately to the south of Area 1, consisted of an oblong yard measuring 16m north-south by 13m east-west. Two small post-medieval pits (c. 0.8m in diameter and 0.3m deep) were identified in the north-west corner. They were filled with gravelly and sandy clay, including sherds of post-medieval/medieval pottery and limpet shell. The pits shed no light on the function of the activity which led to their deposition. They were dated to the 18th/19th century by the presence of post-medieval pottery.

Area 3 was located to the rear of the site and is occupied by a single-storey modern concrete youth club hall, measuring 13.5m north-south by 12m east-west. It was retained in the development.

There was no archaeological activity dating from the medieval period in this area, apart from the single sherd of medieval pottery. The pottery was a green-glazed bodysherd, although it had been reworked from its original depositional location as it was associated with a sherd from a creamware jar.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin