2001:351 - DONNYBROOK: 29 Eglinton Road, Dublin

Testing was required at the proposed development at 29 Eglinton Road as it straddled Donnybrook’s zone of archaeological potential. Twelve trenches were excavated from 11 to 14 June 2001.

The desktop assessment revealed, through cartographic and documentary analysis, that a post-medieval mill-race was present on the site. These sources also indicated that the area west of the mill-race was used for agricultural activity until the 20th century. The results of the test-trenching confirmed that a known linear gully running along the eastern boundary of the property is a mill-race of post-medieval date. The mill-race extended 60m along the length of the drive, terminating at the east of the walled yard (located to the north-east of the property). It was approximately 5m in width at the south end and 3m at the north end. The mill-race gully was deeper at the southern (approximately 0.8m) than at the northern end (approximately 0.3m deep). The line of the mill-race appears to have been used as a natural property boundary. To the north it veers east and is subsumed into the boundary dividing the property from the Donnybrook Lawn Tennis Club, while in the south a modern boundary wall is built over it. The mill-race is also echoed by the presence of a brick-built culvert at the extreme south of the gully extending under Eglinton Road. Cartographic sources have confirmed the presence of the mill-race as far back as 1701.

There may have been activity to the west of the site as indicated by the possible archaeological linear features C17 and C19, which appeared at a significant depth. These features yielded no dating evidence and appeared to be artefact-sterile, although the linear cut C17 at the far west did produce evidence for a significant amount of seashell. Evidence from the excavated stratigraphy indicates that there were a number of different soil horizons over the natural geology.

8 Dungar Terrace, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin