County: Dublin Site name: RANELAGH: Sandford Lodge, Sandford Close
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E1183
Author: Georgina Scally
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 717125m, N 732126m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.326421, -6.241747
Monitoring in advance of and during the construction phase of a mixed apartment/office development took place on the site between August and October 2004. Although the site lies outside the area of archaeological potential as designated by Dublin City Council, and there were no known archaeological features on the site, a condition to monitor the site was imposed due to its extensive size (c. four acres) and proximity to areas of historic interest (i.e. the site of the battle of Rathmines, and the 19th-century Bewley estate).
Prior to development the site was occupied by a mid-19th-century house, the former home of the Bewley family, and by a mid-20th-century block-built building, the former National College of Ireland's College of Industrial Relations. The Bewley home is a protected structure and has been retained and incorporated into the new development; the former College of Industrial Relations was demolished. The remaining area of the site was comprised of trees, low-lying scrub and unused ground.
Topsoil to a depth of 0.4m maximum was removed from the area north and south of the 19th-century house. In the area south of the house, topsoil was found to contain a significant scatter of 17th-19th-century pottery fragments, animal bone, oyster shells and a small quantity of brick and stone rubble. A stone-lined drain and a red-brick pipe drain were also found. Ephemeral traces of pits, probably the remains of formal planting areas, were uncovered to the fore of the house. To the rear of the house, traces of 19th/20th-century pottery and rubble were found. These remains were considerably less concentrated than the earlier remains south of the house; one stone-lined and stone-lintelled drain traversed this area.
The archaeological finds suggest that the site, prior to construction of the Bewley home in the mid-19th century, was used for dumping domestic refuse of 17th-19th-century date. After the house was built a small amount of refuse continued to be dumped. The pottery assemblage collected (identified by Clare McCutcheon) contains a range and selection of pottery typical of this period. No other finds or features of any archaeological significance were uncovered.
81 Waterloo Place, Dublin 4
