2001:376 - DUBLIN: Digges Lane, Dublin

Following the demolition of the buildings on this site a second assessment was undertaken. Previously this site, and the site next door on Longford Street Little, were tested in 2000 (Excavations 2000, Nos 258 and 271, 00E0137). Full excavation of the Longford Street Little site was undertaken in 2001. Trenches 1 and 2 were opened during the 2000 assessment, while Trenches 3, 4 and 5 were opened during the 2001 investigations.

Following the two assessments and the full excavation of the adjoining site, the results of the 2001 assessment on Digges Lane can be put in a broader context. The defining levels on the site have been placed within a rough phasing, which is cross-referenced to the adjoining excavations by the writer and those by Roseanne Meenan at 23–27 and 28–30 Stephen Street Lower (Excavations 1992, No. 77; Excavations 1994, No. 84, 94E0091).

The earliest features (Level 1) pre-date the formation of the garden soils (Level 2) across the site. The following phase (Level 3) saw a division in the layout of the site, with evidence for at least five properties fronting onto Stephen Street Lower (Nos 26–30). Of these, only No. 30 survived to be depicted on Rocque’s map in the late 18th century, while the others were merged and superseded at various dates.

The topography of the site, as identified from the surviving levels of the natural, suggests that the current slope of Digges Lane more or less reflects the underlying topography and is not greatly accentuated by the accumulation of materials over time. A depth of some 2m of overburden is present across the site, and the original levels drop from around 11.08m OD in the south-eastern corner to around 9.5m OD across the northern and western portions of the site.

Level 1: pre-14th-century occupation
A number of features pre-dating the formation of the garden soil were identified across the site. The ditch identified on the Longford Street Little site was located at the western end of Trench 4 and may be represented by the disturbance at the western end of Trench 3. The ditch was as much as 6m wide and was cut from levels of around 10.65m OD (Trench 3), 9.6m OD (Longford Street Little) and 10m OD (Trench 4). These levels suggest that it is probably the same feature, although the base was not recorded in any of the three cross-sections, with depths of 9.9m OD, 7.81m OD and 8.4m OD reached respectively. No finds were recovered from the portions in Trenches 3 and 4, but the previous excavation suggested that this ditch is pre-Norman in date (see Excavations 2001, No. 391, Longford Street Little). This feature was not noted in Trench 2, suggesting that it either was not present at this location or was not identified in the previous testing.

Other Level 1 features included a stone surface at 10.4m OD in Trench 3, cut by a pit. A deposit of yellow clay at the base of Trench 4 also produced some shell, bone and medieval pottery, suggesting that more features may be identified when the garden soils are removed.
On the Longford Street Little site, Phases I to III pre-dated the formation of the garden soils, noted below as Level 2. At the 23–27 Stephen Street Lower site, all of the pre-17th-century levels were exposed as features cut into the boulder clay, owing to the presence of deep basements, and were described as Phase 1.

Level 2: late 14th to mid-17th century
A substantial deposit of garden soils was present across the site. This deposit was absent from the eastern end of Trench 3 and a number of other areas in the vicinity where lift shafts and other deep pits were present. It was also absent across the central portion of Trench 4 and two of the properties that originally fronted onto Stephen Street Lower (see Plots 2 and 5 below). It was only absent from one section of Trench 1 (corresponding to Plot 2 below).

There was a substantial quantity of this soil across the site, with up to 1.15m, 0.9m, 0.6m, 0.7m and 1m present in Trenches 1–5 respectively. This equates to upper levels of 11.7m OD, 10.9m OD, 10.7m OD, 10.9m OD and 10.6m OD for Trenches 2, 3, 4, 1 and 5 respectively (i.e. as they occur south–north on the site), with corresponding basal levels of 10.6m OD, 10.3m OD, 10m OD, 9.75m OD and 9.6m OD.

These soils were deepest at the northern end of the site (1.15m in Trench 1 and 1m in Trench 5). As the site drops from south to north, this may be a combination of topography and the impact of the 17th-century and later formation levels. On the adjoining Longford Street Little site, these soils were found to date from the late 14th century through to the early 17th century.

Level 3: mid-17th century to mid-18th century
The site was divided somewhere to the north of the line of Trench 4, possibly during the development of the area in the late 17th century, when the Stephen Street Lower frontage was developed and fronting properties with plots extending back about 26m south from the street front were constructed.

The southern end of the site included an area indicated as developed along the frontage on Rocque’s map of 1756. Many of the earlier and pre-OS maps (e.g. Pratt and Duncan) give no indication of the status of this area, and it is not until the first edition OS map (1843) that a number of properties are shown laid out across the site. A deposit of soils across this part of the site containing 17th- and 18th-century finds should be identified with this level.

At least five plots fronting onto Stephen Street Lower were identified at the northern end of the site (numbered sequentially from east to west), each measuring around 4.25–4.75m (approximately 14–16 feet) wide. These levels were described as Phase V on the Longford Street Little site and Phase 2 on the 23–27 Stephen Street Lower site. Roseanne Meenan identified three roughly 4m-wide plots at 28–30 Stephen Street Lower, correlating with those identified in the trenches at Digges Lane. This means that Plot 3 is 28 Stephen Street Lower, Plot 2 is No. 29 and Plot 1 is No. 30. It is likely that Plots 5 and 4 equate to Nos 26 and 27 respectively.

Plot 1 (originally 30 Stephen Street Lower)
The easternmost plot, Plot 1, adjoined Digges Lane and measured around 4.25m (to the current Digges Lane frontage). A number of features were identified in this plot in Trench 5, including pits and dumps over a substantial quantity of the Level 2 garden soils. A similar profile was identified in Trench 1. A substantial wall foundation divided Plot 1 from Plot 2. This probably dates from the mid-18th century and replaced an earlier boundary. Plot 1 is the only one of the five that is identifiable on Rocque’s map of 1756.

Plot 2 (originally 29 Stephen Street Lower)
This plot measured around 4.25m in width and was identified in Trenches 1 and 5. The Level 2 garden soils survived at a lower level (10.25m OD) in Trench 5 than in Trench 1 (10.55m OD). A substantial pit and a number of other post-medieval features were identified with the use of this plot.

Plot 3 (originally 28 Stephen Street Lower)
This plot measured some 4.75m in width and was separated from Plot 2 by a boundary wall in Trench 1 and Trench 5. No Level 2 medieval garden soils survived in this plot in Trench 5, although they were present in Trench 1, where they were overlain by post-medieval soils.

Plot 4 (originally 27 Stephen Street Lower?)
This plot measured around 4.25m. In Trench 5, a ceramic pipe was located at 2.5m below the surface in a 0.5m-wide trench, cut by a later pipe, both inserted from around 0.5m below the surface. There were a number of disturbed layers of cobbles, the lowest at 0.5m (10.9m OD). Similar late deposits overlay pipes across the whole plot in Trench 1.

Plot 5 (originally 26 Stephen Street Lower?)
This plot measured some 4.5m at the western end of Trench 5. Level 2 medieval garden soils were only present in Trench 1, where they survived to a depth of 1.4m (between 9.4m and 10.4m OD). The upper fills were possibly of modern date, with no clear indication of a post-medieval or 17th-century level, and contained a substantial quantity of 18th- and 19th-century fill, to a depth of some 2.4m (11.4–9m OD). The truncated base of a 17th-century pit was identified in the centre of the plot, at a depth of 2.4–3m (9–8.5m OD).

Level 4: late 18th century and later
The earliest detailed layout of the boundaries on the site is on Rocque’s map of 1756, which gives some idea of the date of the upper deposits across the site. The limits of the cobbling at the upper level of Plot 1 (at a depth of 0.4m) appeared to correspond to an open area on Rocque that was subsequently built over by the time of the first edition OS map (1843). Other short sections of cobbling in Plots 2 and 4 may correspond to the same period, although the area investigated by Trench 5 was mostly open from the time of Rocque through to the late 19th century. The layout of this portion of the site changes constantly on the OS maps and equates to Phases VI and VII on Longford Street Little and Phase 2 at 23–27 Stephen Street Lower.

Level 5
Level 5 consisted of modern fills and surfaces (mainly demolition layers).

It is anticipated that further investigations of the site will take place prior to development in 2002.

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