2001:395 - DUBLIN: New Street, Dublin

It is proposed to construct apartments on this site. The developer was required by An Bord Pleanála to carry out an assessment of the site prior to commencement of construction.
While located outside the area of the walled medieval city, the site (at the extreme north-west end of New Street) is located within a known area of medieval activity. The culverted River Poddle forms the boundary of the site at the south. New Street was laid out in the early 13th century, and is first mentioned in 1218. In 1992, during monitoring of the construction of a new culvert for the Poddle, Claire Walsh (1997, 35) found evidence confirming the existence of a pool at the junction of New Street and Dean Street.

Monitoring was carried out during excavation of engineers’ test-pits. These revealed that the modern box culvert for the Poddle bottomed at 2.7m below present street level. It also became clear that there had been a cellar in the house that originally stood at the extreme northern end of the site. The present street frontage probably lies some metres west of the original street frontage as the north end of New Street was widened during the last twenty years.

Three test-trenches were excavated. A deep deposit of building rubble was exposed in Trench 1; the house here had been demolished into its cellar, explaining the depth of rubble. On the rest of the site the uppermost layer comprised loose black silty clay similar to garden soil. This contained blocks of stone, brick, chunks of mortar and other indicators of post-medieval deposition/disturbance. Across the site this layer varied in depth between 1.5m and 2.2m, although at the north end of Trench 1 only rubble was present where the rubble-filled cellar was located. Underlying this layer was a layer of grey/green gravelly silt. This produced animal bones, shell, leather offcuts, three sherds of medieval pottery and two sherds of post-medieval pottery. In Trenches 1 and 3 this silt layer was bottomed at approximately 2.4m onto black gritty gravel. In engineers’ test-pit 1, fragments of twig and animal bone were observed on the surface of this gravel.

There was no evidence in any of the test-pits or trenches for structures of any sort, either of stone or of wood.

The grey silt layer that occurred over most of the site may have been a riverine deposit, although disturbed and mixed to some extent as evidenced by the presence of medieval and post-medieval pottery.

The possible drainage feature in Trench 2 was post-medieval in date; this was shown by the presence of late pottery and brick-impressed mortar. It was sealed by the layer of peaty material but there was no evidence to suggest that it was related to tanning or other industrial activities.

Reference
Walsh, C. 1997 Archaeological excavations at Patrick, Nicholas and Winetavern streets, Dublin. Dingle.

Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath