2006:627 - DUBLIN: 4a John Street South, Dublin

Testing and subsequent monitoring was conducted for a proposed residential development at 4A John Street South, Dublin 8, in October and December 2006. The maximum depth of the foundations of the development was 1m.

The site is located in an area of significant archaeological potential in the Liberties area, which is reflected in the large number of recorded monuments in the immediate vicinity of the site. Of particular interest is the position of the site in relation to the city defences of the 1640s from the Confederate Wars. These defences, which have been found in previous excavations nearby, are recorded to have run along Ardee Street and Pimlico. Analysis of contemporary records by Peter Walsh places the development site on the inside of an artillery fort, which was bounded by present-day John Street, Summer Street, Braithwaite Street and Pimlico.

Testing recovered no features of interest other than rubbish dumps dating from 1650 onwards, i.e. from immediately after the aforementioned Confederate Wars. These dumps lay on a thick sterile layer, which might represent the building up and consolidation of the interior of the artillery fort in and around 1643. A test-pit through this layer revealed that it measured c. 0.4m in thickness and lay directly above the underlying natural subsoil. For the most part, the sterile layer was not impacted upon by the development.

32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2