County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 47 Gardiner Street Upper
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 18:23 Licence number: 99E0530
Author: Erin Gibbons, for Arch-Tech Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 715755m, N 735710m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.358918, -6.260988
Testing was undertaken on the rear yard of 47 Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1, on 27 and 28 September 1999. The yard abuts two service lanes that lead into Dorset Lane, which acts as a rear access to the rear yards of a row of Georgian buildings at the north-west end of Gardiner Street Upper.
A trench was opened mechanically across the length of the site for a distance of 26m south-west/north-east, to an average width and depth of 1m. The excavation trench was widened to cover a 1.6m2 area in the south-west corner because of the presence of an unidentified structure. It was excavated to a depth of 1.6m, at which point natural, undisturbed soil was identified. A bricked and vaulted structure was partly exposed in the cutting. It abutted the boundary wall to the south, of the same depth as the structure. A narrow drainage channel was present at the base of the boundary wall. It is probable that the bricked and vaulted structure was constructed to conceal a water drainage channel that traversed the rear yard. A similar feature may be present in the yard of the adjoining plot. The roof of the vaulted chamber only partly survived. Finds from the backfill within the chamber suggest that the vaulted roof collapsed or was deliberately broken through in the past 40 years.
No further exploration of the chamber was undertaken because of the danger of undermining a poorly built extension to the building. However, enough of the structure was exposed to give a reasonable interpretation of its date and function. It would be useful to know whether other rear yards in adjoining buildings had such elaborate chambers to cover drainage channels, as this would give an interesting insight into rear yard/garden layouts of the Georgian period in the area.
Traces of the foundation of a brown brick building that formerly housed a woodwork shop were identified, surviving to a depth of 0.4m. The average depth of natural soil within the trench was 1m. The upper surface was made up of 0.2m of concrete. Fragments of yellow and red brick and mortar in garden soil made up the stratigraphy of the remaining 0.8m. No horizons earlier than the 18th century were present.
45 Daniel Street, Dublin 8
