2000:0287 - DUBLIN: 1–5 Stephen Street Upper, Dublin

Pre-development test excavations were previously carried out on this site by Martin Reid (Excavations 1997, 47, 97E0094). The current test excavations consisted of two phases of limited excavation, carried out in October and December 1999 and January 2000.

The first phase of testing uncovered two adult skulls, and as a result it was decided to extend the area of investigation to get a better understanding of the extent of the burial remains and any other in situ archaeological material.

The second phase of test-trenching took place over a two-week period in December 1999, with further clearances and test-trenches excavated in January 2000. The area cleared was 12m east–west x 9m, located in the north-east corner of the site. The burial horizon was located at a depth of c. 1.6–1.8m below the present level of the carpark (10.09–11m OD).

The remains of twenty articulated individual skeletons were identified within the original area cleared, and one more burial was uncovered in the extended area. Their spatial distribution indicates formalisation of positioning in that they were Christian-style burials, oriented east–west with heads to the west.

This area of excavation was subsequently extended by 6–8m to the west and 8–9m to the south-west. As a result, a substantial stone wall was revealed. This north–south feature was 1.1–1.3m wide and a minimum of 11.4m long. All burials were located to the east of this wall, suggesting that it functioned as a perimeter wall for the graveyard.

The site is located at the junction of Stephen Street and Longford Street in the parish of St Peter in Royal Exchange Ward. It lies south-east of the walls of the medieval town, in an area referred to in documents from the Anglo-Norman period as the ‘Steine’. Close to the location of the present excavation are the sites of the medieval churches of St Stephen’s and St Peter’s.

In the Conjectural map of Gaelic Dublin, c. 838, a monastic settlement is suggested by the typical oval boundary, which may have been an ecclesiastical enclosure. It was suggested that this may be the basis for the Dubh Linn (Black Pool), which was a monastic settlement located ‘at the other side of the Poddle and south of the pool from which is derived its name’ (ibid.).

St Stephen’s Church and the leper hospital were located at the site of the present Mercer’s Hospital and gave their name to the street. This may also have provided an embarkation point for pilgrims travelling to sites such as Santiago de Compostela.

The church of St Peter is located in one of the ‘oldest parishes of Dublin, and is listed among the possessions of Holy Trinity in Alexander III’s bull of 1179’ (Bradley, SMR File; Bradley 1992). Certainly it was in existence prior to the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, as evidenced by its full name, St Peter’s de la Hulle. It functioned as one of the original parochial churches of Anglo-Norman Dublin. By 1370 it was in such a state of disrepair that it was described as ‘ruined to its foundations’, and a papal indulgence was granted of ‘1 year and 40 days to repair it’ (Donnelly 1911, ii, 135; SMR file).

The exact site of the original church of St Peter is not known. On the earliest available map of Dublin (John Speed, 1610) it is placed in the block defined by the curving line of Stephen Street to the north, with St Stephen’s Church to the east, and by Whitefriars to the south. St Peter’s, if not actually side-by-side with St Stephen’s, was certainly situated very close to it.

St Peter’s is believed to be the best candidate among the medieval churches on the south side of the city to have been a pre-Norse foundation (Clarke, 1990). Throughout the early medieval period and pre-dating the establishment of Norse settlement, there are references to abbots and bishops of Dubh Linn. Further evidence of an early ecclesiastical site to the south of the city comes from three graveslabs built into the fabric of St Patrick’s Cathedral in the 13th century and also one discovered at Lower Mount Street in 1916 (Clarke 1990). The site of this ecclesiastical foundation is believed to be to the south of the Liffey, overlooking the ‘black pool’ itself, and much of the historical information points to a site on the east bank of the Poddle, south of the pool. On both Speed’s map and the 1756 map of Dublin by Rocque, there is a distinctive curvature to the street pattern formed by Stephen Street, Whitefriar Street and Peter’s Row. The curvature is characteristic of early medieval ecclesiastical enclosures and is still preserved in the modern street pattern.

The area around the site (including the putative early medieval enclosure) was granted to the Carmelites by Robert Bagot, and a priory was erected off the modern Aungier Street under his patronage in 1278. Though suppressed in 1539 with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Carmelites eventually returned, and the current monastic church is the result of a programme of rebuilding in the late 18th century. The church is now famous as the resting place of the relics of St Valentine.

By the time of the restoration in the 1660s, both St Peter’s and St Stephen’s churches were in very bad repair if not in ruins. Land and finance for the building of a new parish church were provided by the first earl of Longford.

In the early 17th century Sir Francis Aungier, Master of the Rolls to James I, acquired much of the property of the dissolved Carmelite priory and turned the monastic buildings into his residence. His descendant, also Francis, was created earl of Longford in 1677 and began to turn his Dublin property into a building estate. He laid out Aungier Street, Longford Street and Cuffe Street, providing the site for the new church of St Peter’s on Aungier Street. In 1733 Edward Lovett Pearce erected a theatre on Longford Street, allegedly on the corner with Aungier Street (Rocque clearly marks the theatre on the middle of the north side of the street).

The present excavation site would therefore appear to be located at the western edge of the putative early medieval ecclesiastical enclosure. Speed’s map and the late 17th-century developments of the earl of Longford would suggest that the site remained undeveloped, part of the monastic precinct originally of St Peter’s and later of the Carmelite priory.

The site is located on the corner of Stephen Street Upper and Longford Street Great. The area of excavation was c. 34m east–west (max.) by 26m. Before excavation the site consisted of a carpark with no standing buildings extant.

Excavation was carried out between 14 and 28 August 2000. Analysis and recording of the in situ human remains were undertaken by a qualified osteoarchaeologist.

Mechanical excavation involved the removal of all made-up ground across the site. This was on average 1.6–1.8m deep and included redbrick layers, concrete floors, late walls etc.

Reference to the archaeological report describing the results of the excavation programme undertaken immediately to the north (Reid 1992) highlighted the ordnance level at which articulated human remains were revealed (10.9–11m OD). As a result mechanical excavation stopped approximately 0.2m above this level, with all further excavation proceeding by hand.

Excavation revealed a cobbled surface in the south-west corner of the site measuring 5m east–west x 2.5m. An east–west contemporary drain survived within the feature. It sealed a dark green/brown, friable clay layer (the layer into which the articulated human remains were cut) and was sealed by a friable, dark brown clay layer with moderate redbrick inclusions evenly distributed. This feature was preserved in situ.

An east–west wall foundation measuring 11m east–west x 0.5m was recorded north of the cobbled surface. The wall, which was one course high, was made up of loose, irregular stones and occasional cut stone, along with occasional redbrick and mortar inclusions. At its eastern end a chamfered stone was built into the wall. It is suggested that this represents the reuse of a probably medieval wall fragment and extends the image of the proposed development area being located in an area of archaeological significance.

The most important archaeological material was located in the north-east corner of the site and consisted of six partially excavated human burials and two crania fragments. Excavation was confined to establishing the articulated nature of the human remains, with the effect that they were only partially uncovered.

All human remains have been preserved in situ.

References
Bradley, J. 1992 ‘The topographical development of Scandinavian Dublin, in F.H.A. Aalen and K. Whelan (eds), Dublin city and county: from prehistory to present. Dublin.
Clarke, H. 1990 Medieval Dublin: the making of a metropolis. Dublin.
Donnelly, Revd Dr 1911 Short histories of Dublin parishes, part IX. Dublin.
Reid, M. 1992 Report on archaeological testing at Stephen Street Upper/Longford Street Great. Unpublished.

8 Dungar Terrace, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin