2005:427 - DUBLIN: Mercy Convent, Cork Street, Dublin

The site, in the grounds of Mercy Convent, is bounded by Cork Street, Ormond Street and Brickfield Lane. Testing carried out by Eoin Sullivan in October 2000 did not reveal archaeological remains (Excavations 2000, No. 255). However, the presence of standing buildings had limited testing to certain areas only. During demolition of these buildings, the remains of a tanning box were revealed in the north-western part of the site and additional testing carried out by Eoin Corcoran in December 2004 revealed a second box in the same area (Excavations 2004, No. 529). A tannery had existed in the location until relatively recent times. Monitoring and excavation were carried out by the writer between 4 January and 11 February 2005 and final monitoring was conducted by Eoin Corcoran under an extension to this licence between 1 and 16 March.

Five buildings were proposed for the site. Building 1, in the south-west, was the location of gardens from at least 1756 (depicted on Rocque’s map) to the present day. This was reflected by the stratigraphy of cultivated soils uncovered during monitoring. One of the deepest layers contained significant quantities of animal bone, with a notable predominance of bovine horn core, suggesting it was contemporaneous to the tanning activities to the north-west. A pit cut into this layer was probably used to dispose of waste from this period.

Building 3, in the north-western part of the site, lay in the location of the tannery and only very preliminary excavation was carried out. The area had been occupied by domestic houses and gardens from 1756 onwards, but by 1866 the OS showed a ‘Tan Yard’ in the location. A large number of rectangular tanning boxes survived, set out in parallel rows across the area. These had been set down in a large trench and packed in place with redeposited natural, which formed the tannery floor and provided walkways between the boxes. Three rectangular, plank-built tanning boxes were excavated, revealing virtually identical structures and containing a variety of fills, in all three cases including a malodorous organic basal fill, probably the decayed remains of woodchip used in the tanning process.

The eastern part of Building 4 lay north within the site and contained two phases of pits, which may have had tanning-related functions. Evidence of post-medieval gardening activity was uncovered in the northern part of the area and was overlain by a cobbled road, which probably represented the late 19th-century entrance to a chapel marked on the 1939 OS map.

Building 5 lay in the north-eastern part of the site and the remains of a large statue were uncovered during soil-stripping in the area. It is possible that this is the statue formerly located in the gardens of the convent and marked on the 1866 OS map. A post-medieval wooden-pipe water system (marked on the 1838 OS map) was uncovered in this area with related plank-built cisterns and the remains of a wooden capillary pump. Some of the wooden features had inscriptions and scoring, possibly representing signature marks of the carpenters. In the same area a sunken barrel, which may have been an early tanning box, and an L-shaped foundation (possibly a 19th-century garden wall) were uncovered.

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