1999:273 - STONYBATTER: 93–94 Manor Street, Dublin

Several test-trenches were opened as part of an assessment of a site on the corner of Stonybatter and Arbour Place, along the western side of one of the main thoroughfares leaving the city from the medieval period onwards. Although the philology of Stonybatter is obscure, there is a possibility that the word has Hiberno-Norse origins. Manor Street, in turn, is thought to be a reference to the manor of Grangegorman, a little distance to the north-east. At any rate, the site was well developed by the time of John Rocque's survey of 1756, and the possibility remained that archaeological strata were preserved in the substrates.

Four trenches were mechanically excavated across the site where the proposed basement would impinge on substrates. With the exception of one trench in the south-western corner of the site, the insulated foundations of a fish factory had truncated any underlying archaeological strata to natural subsoil. A late 19th-century yard in limestone setts occupied the south-western sector of the site, overlying early 19th-century occupation debris. This activity sealed the subsoil.

Further testing work is to be undertaken in 2000 after the demolition of the existing street-front structures on Stonybatter. The site is to be a mixed residential and commercial development.

9 Ben Edair Road, Stonybatter, Dublin 7