County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 5 College Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0276
Author: Stephen Reed, Judith Carroll & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 715971m, N 734239m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.345651, -6.258285
Testing was undertaken between 6 and 14 June 2000, in the basement area of 5 College Street, an area formerly used as the AIB vaults, to determine the location and survival of archaeological deposits beneath the bank before a reduction in the floor level. Artefacts recovered during its construction in the 1860s ranged in date from the medieval to the post-medieval periods; in particular a medieval ‘tile pavement’ was recorded, suggesting the presence of a medieval ecclesiastical building on the site.
Seven trenches were excavated to a maximum depth of 1.3m, with sondages excavated to investigate the stratigraphy below the floor of the trenches. Trenches were positioned across the bank’s vault to give a representative sample across the site.
Excavations revealed in situ river gravels at a depth of 1.54–1.85m below ground level (1.11–0.8m AOD). Constructed in foundation trenches cut into these gravels were four walls. The walls survived at a depth of c. 0.5m below the basement floor and were aligned at 45° to the walls of the AIB bank. The walls were constructed of lime-mortar-bonded stone. Internal mortar floor surfaces associated with these structures survived in Trenches 1 and 4. The alignment of these walls matched that of the buildings demolished in the 1860s for the construction of the Provincial Bank. No earlier features or artefacts were encountered during the excavations.
13 Anglesea Street, Dublin 2
