2001:385 - DUBLIN: 13 and 14 Hendrick Street, Dublin

An assessment was conducted on the site of a proposed apartment development at Hendrick Street, Blackhall Place, Dublin 2, on 17 February 2001. Three test-trenches were excavated by machine.

Trench 1 was excavated to the north of the site parallel with Oxmanstown Lane; it measured 1.6m by 18m and was excavated to a maximum depth of 2.71m. A thick layer of modern demolition rubble and clay was excavated to a depth of 0.8m and overlay a square brick-tiled floor that lay within a stone-walled cellar at the east end of the trench. The cellar had clearly been cut through an earlier post-medieval deposit of coarse black clay containing brick fragments and mortar that measured 0.9m in thickness. The brick floor was constructed above a thick layer of mortar, 0.79m thick, and overlay a thin layer of sterile brown clay 0.41m thick, which in turn overlay the natural orange sand and gravel. Two human burials (F107, F108) were exposed in the natural at a depth of 2.51m and 2.69m respectively. F107 appeared to be an inhumed burial, oriented east–west, and partial excavation revealed the remains of the cranium, upper right radius, both clavicles and the upper vertebrae. Only the skull of the second burial was exposed. All the finds recovered were post-medieval in date.

Trench 2, excavated north–south to the rear of the Gravel Walk church, measured 10.8m by 2.05m and was excavated to a maximum depth of 3.02m. The concrete yard/floor surface, 0.22m thick, lay above a deposit of loose brick and stone, 2.7m in depth, which was clearly the backfill of a post-medieval brick-walled cellar at the south end of the trench. This was abutted by a thin (0.17m) layer of brick that was exposed below the concrete surface to the north, and lay above a thick (2.82m) layer of post-medieval coarse black clay that directly overlay the natural alluvial gravels and stone. A large concrete pillar, measuring 1m in width to a depth of 1.72m, was exposed at the north of the trench, and was clearly the foundation for a steel-framed building that once occupied part of the site. All the finds recovered were post-medieval in date.

Trench 3, excavated east–west to the north of Trench 2 and parallel with Trench 1, measured 1.6m by 9.75m and was excavated to a maximum depth of 2.97m. The concrete yard/floor surface overlay a thick layer of post-medieval coarse black clay that extended to a depth of 1.73m. This was cut at the east end of the trench by two modern concrete walls which had been backfilled with a loose pea gravel. The natural orange sand and gravel was exposed at a depth of 1.73m beneath the coarse black clay. All the finds recovered were post-medieval in date.

No archaeological deposits or features were exposed.

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