2003:2100 - HOWTH: 'Old College', Abbey Street, Dublin

An assessment was carried out within a section of a medieval building located just outside the south-east corner of the Anglo-Norman church and graveyard of St Mary. The building can probably be dated to the late 15th/early 16th century and was thought by Leask to have housed the priests of the collegiate church, and, as a result, became known as the ‘Old College’. The building is three-storeyed and Tshaped, but only the eastern side (the cross of the ‘T’) formed part of this assessment, as the western end (the main block) lies outside the proposed development site and is currently occupied as a dwelling-house. Alan Hayden carried an architectural appraisal and this included a scaled 1:50 survey, a photographic survey and a written description. Hayden established that the ground floor inside the medieval building had been lowered in the modern period by between 1.1 and 1.7m but that the building originally had two medieval floor levels, which could be traced in the standing walls by the position of blocked-up fireplaces and windows.

The assessment confirmed that the original medieval ground-floor level (1.7m higher than the present floor) had been lowered in the modern period and the new floor was cut into sandy deposits, which produced medieval pottery. Thus the upper deposits within the house can be dated to the medieval period, confirmed by the discovery of several sherds of pottery. The assessment also established some sort of mortared foundation or footing within the footprint of the building, perhaps suggestive of either an earlier structure or a cellar related to the present structure. Further work is expected on the site.

2 Kiliney View, Albert Road Lower, Co. Dublin