2006:632 - DUBLIN: 91–93 Merrion Square, Dublin

Five test-trenches were excavated at the rear of Nos 91–93 Merrion Square revealing an exclusively post-medieval deposit profile dating from c. ad 1700 to the present. The vast majority of the deposits at the site related to the activity that occurred to the rear of the street-front buildings, either during their construction or as a result of occupation of the site in the 18th century. A possible early ‘ditch’, potentially associated with the defences of the city in 1690, was identified in Trench 4.

A deep ditch or pit was identified in Trench 4 between 2–3m below the present ground level. The fill of the ditch dates from the 18th century, on the basis of pottery recovered from it. It is possibly related to the potential post-medieval defences located to the west of the site. However, given that bricks appear to have been manufactured on site (evidence from Trench 1), it is equally possible that the pit was excavated as a source of clay in order to fire bricks.

Brick manufacturing waste was identified in Trench 1. A black burnt silt deposit was identified immediately under a clear deposit of crushed brick. The morphology of the deposit was clearly comparable to ‘brickfield deposits’ located by the writer during excavations at the rear of Sackville Street in 2003 (Excavations 2003, No. 557, 98E0357). The manufacture of bricks is relatively simple and is undertaken by excavating suitable clay and placing the deposit in a wooden clamp or mould. These clamps are placed in a large pyre and set alight, thus firing the bricks. The resulting deposit of a burnt charcoal and a soot-stained layer in combination with a layer of crushed brick is derived from sorting through the pyre after firing to retrieve the successfully fired bricks. These deposits are likely to represent the period when the city grew rapidly, with the construction of houses around Merrion Square in the mid-18th century. Brick manufacturing occurred at a site near Baggot Street, to which this site is likely to be comparable.

The foundation of one of the black limestone calp property boundary walls that originally divided the property plots running back off Merrion Square was identified in Trench 3. This trench also identified the wall and floor of a ‘stable’ building located abutting the property boundary wall to the rear of No. 92. This building and others including gardens are illustrated on the early OS maps. Deposits of garden soil were identified in the test-trenches; these accumulations of brown silty clay represent the formal gardens that were laid out on the site. The gardens, stable blocks and outbuildings to the rear of the large houses around Merrion Square were dynamic places, as is indicated by the cobbling of likely 19th-century date identified in Trench 1, well above a complex matrix of deposits.

27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2