County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 23–26 Pearse Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018-020---- Licence number: 03E1242
Author: Melanie McQuade, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: House - 19th century and Well
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 716261m, N 734199m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.345228, -6.253947
In October 2003 testing was carried out on the site of a proposed development to the rear of early 19th-century terraced houses at 23–26 Pearse Street. Five trenches were opened and natural ground was exposed. The stratigraphy of the site comprised fill, rubble deposits and garden soils dating to the post-medieval period. A standing wall against which the structure on the north-west of the site was built is probably the remains of a 19th-century boundary wall. It shows numerous phases of construction relating to earlier buildings which occupied this part of the site. In addition to this, the remains of four walls, a well and a cobbled surface were exposed in the test-trenches.
In the west of the site was the foundation of a wall constructed of limestone blocks (0.4m by 0.23m by 0.2m) and packing stones bonded with lime mortar. It was 0.65m long, 0.6m high and 0.6m wide. To the south-east of this foundation, the remains of a wall constructed of rubble and lime mortar with occasional red brick were uncovered.
In the south-east of the site the remains of a north–south wall were uncovered abutting the standing wall at the rear of No. 26. The remains were constructed of brick and stone bonded with mortar. It measured 0.3m wide and up to 1m high. Slightly to the east of this were the remains of another north–south wall, with an eastern return of stone-and-mortar construction. These remains appear to be from an annex to No. 26.
A circular well and a red-brick drain were also uncovered to the rear of No. 26. The well was of drystone construction and was 1.1m in diameter.
A cobbled surface and an associated wall were uncovered in the north-east of the site. The wall was constructed of red brick and limestone blocks (0.18m by 0.44m), bonded with mortar. The location of these foundation remains and cobbles corresponds to buildings depicted on OS maps of the mid-19th century. The well, drain and two pits, one uncovered in the west and another in the south of the site, are probably also 19th century in date.
The finds from the test-trenches comprised ceramics dating from the 17th to 19th centuries. These were mostly recovered from a deposit of garden soil, and indicate a level of activity within the development area throughout the 17th–19th centuries.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
