County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 137 Capel Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1350
Author: Helen Kehoe
Site type: Burial
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 715275m, N 734482m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.347986, -6.268657
Planning permission was granted for the refurbishment of the existing basement of No. 137, Capel Street, Dublin 1. There was to be no excavation of the existing basement floor. However, the removal of a one-block-wide concrete wall extending east–west to open up the rear of the basement, located directly under the existing shop floor, revealed a section face of stony fill (1.5m deep by 3m wide). When a layer of plastic sheeting which separated the wall from the fill was removed, several human bones and two skull fragments were revealed in some of the fill which fell away from the section face. The top of the fill was 0.2m from the underside of the existing ground shop floor.
The removal of some of the loose bones revealed evidence for one visible articulated skeleton, extending east–west in the section face of the fill. It was agreed to leave the fill and remains in situ and re-bury the removed disarticulated bones back into the deposit. The west of the basement was then blocked and sealed up completely, with no access to the fill and bone remains. One sherd of high-glazed creamware was retrieved from the stony deposit which contained the remains.
An 1847 OS map of the area shows the rear of No. 137 close to the rear of The Scots Church, which once fronted onto Meeting House Lane. It is possible that the disarticulated skeletal remains may form a section of a burial ground once associated with this church.
11 Norseman Place, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7
