2003:0582 - DUBLIN: Stephen Street Lower (Rear of)/Digges Lane, Dublin

The excavation was located to the rear of 27–30 Stephen Street/Digges Lane (at the rear of the Drury Court Hotel), in the medieval southern suburb of the city. The site lies just outside the ditched enclosure of the pre-Norman church of St Peter (SMR 18:20(389)), which lies a short distance to the west (on the other side of Dawson Court South). Part of an early ditch, thought to have enclosed the church, was located to the south-west during previous testing by John O’Neill (Excavations 2001, No. 376).

The site at Digges Lane measured 13.7m east–west by 6m and six phases were identified, ranging in date from the medieval period (Phases 1–3) into the modern (Phases 4–6). The earliest phase of redeposited clays produced no datable material, suggesting that they may have been pre-Norman in date, although cut by several Anglo-Norman pits. Phase 2 represented the beginning of an accumulation of grey clay, which was to remain consistent throughout the medieval period into the early modern period (Phases 2–3) and produced a large number of ceramic finds.

By the late 17th/early 18th century (Phase 4) there is evidence of some sort of metal/industrial workings, in the form of spreads of burnt cinders and coal, heated to an almost vitrified state. A large well, slightly later in date, was found in the centre of the site, measuring 1.7m in diameter by at least 3.4m in depth. It was not lined and probably just tapped into an original spring. The partial foundations of a large stone building were located in Phase 5, and this was probably built sometime in the mid-18th century. The exposed section, built of uncut limestone, measured externally at least 8.5m east–west by at least 6m, but the original plan is depicted on Rocque’s map of Dublin (c. 1756), where it is orientated north–south, running parallel to Digges Lane. The building was probably related to the industrial phase, as the floor deposits were made up of layers of burnt sand, cinders and coal. The remains of a rectangular brick pit, measuring at least 0.9m east–west by at least 0.42m by at least 0.26m in depth, may be all that survives of some sort of latrine, possibly located within the stone building, although representing a second phase. The building was then demolished and the area cobbled (Phase 6), after which time a large cellar was built on the western side of the site, which was subsequently demolished and backfilled with rubble.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin