2002:0541 - DUBLIN: Bon Secours Hospital, Glasnevin Hill, Dublin

The Bon Secours Hospital is believed to stand within the former enclosure of an early medieval monastic settlement. A number of trial-trenches were excavated before proposed developments. Six trenches, each c. 0.6m wide, were excavated to boulder clay adjacent to the existing hospital building and within the footprint of the new development. No archaeologically significant material or features were found in four of the trenches, but two on the west side of the hospital, Trenches 3b and 4, revealed features that may be medieval.

In Trench 3b a setting of loose stones, each measuring c. 0.3m by 0.2m, covering an area c. 1m wide, was revealed sitting on the boulder clay. A deposit of soil and gravel containing some animal bone and shell fragments sealed the stone setting. There was a disparity of c. 1.5–1.75m in the depth of the occurrence of boulder clay in Trench 3b and in two nearby trenches, Trench 2, c. 10m north-west, and Trench 4, c. 14m south. This suggests that the boulder clay was excavated out, perhaps to create a ditch. In Trench 4 a gently sloping, shallow ditch, c. 5.5m wide, appeared to be cut into the boulder clay. The ditch shelved to c. 0.2m deep, at which point a straight-edged cut, c. 0.25m deep, was made in the boulder clay, and stones, c. 0.3m long, 0.2m wide and 0.25m high, were set side by side against the face of the clay.

Eleven test-pits, each c. 0.5m square, were also excavated in open ground within the hospital boundary where it was intended to construct a temporary carpark. These were excavated to maximum depths of 0.8m, as the temporary surface required for the carpark would be no deeper than 0.6m. No archaeologically significant material or features were revealed in the pits.

77 Brian Road, Marino, Dublin 3