County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: Collins Square, Collins Barracks, Benburb Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 18:020306 Licence number: 94E0125 ext.
Author: D.L. Swan and Máirín Ní Cheallaigh, Arch-Tech Ltd, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Site type: Building
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 713960m, N 734537m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.348765, -6.288373
Monitoring of engineering test-pits in Collins Square, Collins Barracks, was carried out between 29 November and 5 December 2000.
The five test-pits measured c. 1.3m x 2m and were dug to a maximum depth of 1.6m. Test-pits 1, 2 and 3 contained layers consistent with the dumping of brick rubble and mortar across at least part of the site. In Test-pit 2 a fragment of masonry wall, which ran the length of the western edge of the pit for a distance of 1.2m, was uncovered immediately below an in situ concrete ground surface. The northern wall and some diagonally trimmed fragments of the north–south wall of this building stood to a height of c. 3m at the time of excavation. A few sherds of modern pottery were recovered from this pit.
In Test-pit 3 an east–west masonry rubble wall fragment with a maximum width of 0.91m was uncovered at a depth of 0.85m from ground level. This wall fragment survived to a maximum height of 0.5m and was set in a clay layer that had a high percentage of mortar and rubble inclusions.
The location of the wall fragment c. 8.4m south of Block 4, the old Riding School of the Royal Barracks, its substantial width and its east–west orientation suggest that it may be a fraction of the northern wall of the north range of the original Royal Square.
The remaining two pits (Test-pits 3 and 4) were located in the southern third of Collins Square and contained no features, structures or artefacts of historical or archaeological interest.
