County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: Mercer Street/Bow Lane East
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0354
Author: Cia McConway, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 715585m, N 733622m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.340195, -6.264318
A site assessment was carried out in a temporary carpark at the corner of Mercer Street Lower and Bow Lane East, Dublin. Investigations showed that the site had been extensively built up with 0.5–1m depth of modern, red brick rubble infill. This in turn generally overlay a varying depth of post-medieval garden soils and clays. Along the western area of the site, i.e. fronting onto Digges Lane, post-medieval basements and rubble infill extended to a depth of 2.3m below ground level onto subsoil.
Elsewhere, however, a substantial depth of compact, charcoal-flecked, light brown/ochre clays was uncovered underlying the post-medieval soils and clays and overlying the subsoil. While some post-medieval pottery was recovered from the upper level of this clay, a few sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from the lower level. This clay was uncovered at a depth of 0.8–1m along the southern and eastern areas of the site and at 1.3–1.6m in the centre of the site. This clay represents a medieval horizon across the site, similar to that found during excavations at Digges Lane in 1996 (Excavations 1996, 23, 96E0006), with some post-medieval contamination.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30-50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
