County: Dublin Site name: FINGLAS: Holy Faith Convent
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0100
Author: Martin Reid for ADS Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure and Structure
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 712485m, N 738369m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.383501, -6.309159
The proposed construction of sheltered housing for Focus Housing at Holy Faith Convent, Finglas, was subject to pre-development archaeological mitigation excavations. This was largely because of the possibility that remains of a medieval manor and associated features survived at the site. Preliminary testing/assessment undertaken in 1995 and 1997 by Eoin Halpin and Una Cosgrave (Excavations 1995, 24–5, and Excavations 1997, 57) established that a minimum of three areas of archaeological potential were present at the site, and as a result excavation took place in these areas.
The excavation results recorded a previously unknown linear and defensive medieval ditch in the north section of the site (Area 2), and part of a late medieval or 16th-century masonry structure was excavated in the south (Area 3). The south wall of the structure is partially preserved to a height of c. 2m within the wall fronting onto Church Road. This may have been a building within the curtilage of the medieval manor. The manor itself was not identified either during excavations or in subsequent monitoring of pre-development clearances.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
