County: Dublin Site name: HOWTH: Old College, Abbey Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU015-030 Licence number: 03E1804
Author: Christine Baker, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Medieval deposits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 728664m, N 739185m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.387143, -6.065770
Hand excavation of engineering test-pits took place within the Old College, Abbey Road, Howth, in January 2004. Four pits (averaging 1m2), at the corners of the building and the southern footing of a proposed stairwell (3m east-west by 1.1m), were excavated through archaeological deposits to determine the natural subsoil. Leask dated the college to the late 15th/early 16th century (1971, 30). In an unpublished survey carried out in 2000, Alan Hayden established that the ground floor within the building had been lowered by 1.1–1.7m in the modern period. A previous assessment by Linzi Simpson (Excavations 2003, No. 609, 03E0122) had established the medieval horizon to be just below the present ground level. This was confirmed by the current work, where the medieval horizon containing 13th/14th-century pottery was identified 0.06–0.43m below the present ground level. Natural subsoil was identified in the western corners 0.83–1.4m below ground level. The depth of the medieval deposit was at least 2.6m in the eastern pits. The foundation of a rubble-built internal wall (0.5m high) was identified almost centrally, 0.3m below the ground surface.
Reference
Leask, H.G. 1971 Irish churches and monastic buildings, Vol. III, 28–30. Dundalk.
27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
