County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 161 James' Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0375
Author: E. Eoin Sullivan, c/o Arch Tech
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 713645m, N 733857m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.342725, -6.293345
Archaeological test-trenching was carried out at 161 James' Street, Dublin, on 7 and 8 October 1997. The site is located outside the walls of the medieval city, to the north-west of the site of the Abbey of St Thomas, founded by William FitzAudelin in 1177, and a short distance from the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, which was the site of an important medieval religious house from the 12th century onwards. The site is not shown on Speed's map of 1610, but is shown as an open area of land on Rocque's map of 1756.
One trench was mechanically excavated, running in a north-south direction. It measured 4m and was excavated to a depth of 1.25m below ground level (14.445m OD). The site had a series of services running across it and the presence of live sewers confined the area open to excavation. The upper portion consisted of rubble with modern debris and ceramic sewer pipes underlain by a brown compact clay with occasional patches of gravel and subsoil. It produced two sherds of post-medieval pottery, but there were no indications of any structures or associated features of a comparable or earlier date. The site would have been an open area of land as indicated on the cartographic sources. No further excavation was deemed necessary.
32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
