County: Dublin Site name: PORTRAINE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 8:31(02) Licence number: 02E1451 and ext.
Author: Ines Hagen, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Graveyard
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 725247m, N 750989m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.493988, -6.112414
Testing was carried out at Portraine graveyard, Co. Dublin, on 20 and 23 September 2002, to determine the impact that the proposed insertion of floodlights and associated ducting would have on any surviving archaeological remains within the bounds of the graveyard.
Four cuttings, measuring 1m by 1m, were opened and excavated by hand along the internal northern and western graveyard walls, on the proposed line of the ducting and in the location of the floodlights. The natural yellow boulder clay was revealed at a depth of 0.5–0.55m. This was overlain by a disturbed organic deposit of loose, dry, brown, sandy soil. The layer was mixed throughout with disarticulated human bone and finds dating to at least the medieval period, indicating a long history of use of the site. One piece of worked flint was also found, pointing to activity dating to the prehistoric period.
Three archaeological deposits were exposed. These included two shell deposits, at 0.35–0.4m below present ground level, and a section of a limestone wall, oriented east–west. The shell deposits were 0.12–0.14m deep and had minimum measurements of 1m east–west by 0.36m and 0.8m east–west by 0.6m. The top of the wall was found at 0.25m below ground level and was 0.7m from the northern graveyard wall. It was of drystone construction, consisted of up to three courses, 0.4m high and 0.3m wide, and was set in the natural boulder clay. Neither the shell deposits nor the remains of the stone wall were associated with datable artefacts.
The pipe-laying works were carried out and monitored on 17 October 2002. All trenches were manually excavated, reaching a depth of 0.3–0.35m along the line of the ducting immediately adjacent to the internal graveyard walls and 0.25–0.3m at the location of the floodlights. No further archaeological features were encountered.
Trenching outside the present graveyard walls was also monitored and revealed the foundations of the graveyard wall at 0.45m below the modern concrete footpath adjoining the graveyard. There was also evidence of a thin layer of organic soil containing disarticulated human bone, c. 0.1m deep. This lay below a layer of modern rubble (0.25m deep) and the concrete path (0.1m deep), indicating that the graveyard formerly extended beyond its present boundary wall.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
