2004:0551 - 43-44 HILL STREET, DUBLIN, Dublin

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Dublin Site name: 43-44 HILL STREET, DUBLIN

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0649

Author: Sinclair Turrell and Patricia Lynch, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3.

Site type: Urban

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 715888m, N 735185m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.354165, -6.259184

Nine pre-development test-trenches were excavated during July 2004 at 43-44 Hill Street, Dublin 1, where planning permission had been granted for the demolition of the existing buildings and the construction of a five-storey apartment block. The site lay within the zone of archaeological constraint for Dublin city (SMR 18:20), close to the findspots of a number of Viking burials. The natural ground here sloped away to the south and had been levelled by extensive infilling, especially to the south-west. The natural mid-brown, stony clay subsoil was found some 0.3m below the surface to the north-east of the site and around 2.5m below to the south-west. Features revealed by the testing included a circular, stone-built well, some 7m deep, and a vaulted, red-brick cellar with a flagstone floor, as well as several spreads of domestic refuse, consisting of ash, clinker, animal bone, shell, glass and pottery. All of these features were connected with 19th-century occupation and there was no evidence for any earlier activity on site.