2006:648 - DUBLIN: Front Square (Parliament Square), Trinity College, Dublin

Monitoring took place of a service trench in Parliament Square (Front Square), Trinity College, Dublin 2. The site lies just to the west of the site of the priory of All Hallows, first established in 1166. The monastery was dissolved in 1537 and the site granted to the Corporation, who leased it out to various individuals. In 1592 it was chosen as the site for the first university of Dublin and was known as ‘Queen Elizabeth’s College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin’.

The service trench was excavated as part of the refurbishment programme of the square and involved the replacement of the water main and fire hydrant servicing the main blocks. Phase 1 (January 2006) was at the northern end of the square (Nos 7–12) and this revealed that original ground level lies between 1m and 1.1m from present ground level and that the ground was deliberately built up, probably some time in the 17th century. Most distinctive was a deep deposit of brick rubble at the western end of the trench, which lay 0.6m below present ground level and was 0.5m in depth. The brick was handmade, probably 17th-century in date. The remainder of the infill deposits consisted of mixed clays, which contained oyster and cockleshells, animal bone, plaster, fragments of limestone mouldings and brick fragments. No ceramics were found within the fill.
The trench was located within the first westward expansion of the college, which was started in c. 1640, and the cartographic evidence (Hatfield c. 1592 and Speed 1610) indicates that the original boundary wall (north–south) was located along the line of the trench. This wall was then demolished. The Hatfield depiction of Trinity College makes it clear that the original precinct wall was of brick, as were the frontages of the buildings of the college quadrangle at this date, and this is also supported by a written description by William Travers, the provost between 1594 and 1598. The brick rubble at the western end of the trench is in roughly the same location as the original precinct wall and may represent the demolished and robbed-out remains. Several small fragments of lime mouldings were probably from an original gatehouse. This early date is coupled with the fact that the trench produced no pottery artefacts, despite an intensive search.

Phase 2 of the works was at the southern end of the square (June 2006) and this revealed a similar deposit pattern. This end of the college had also been deliberately built up in the early 17th century to a depth of 0.5–0.9m. The distinctive brick rubble at the western end of the trench, identified in the first phase of works, was also noted. Finds were limited, but a sherd of medieval pottery was found at the lowest level, with one sherd of 17th-century pottery coming from the infill deposit. The very upper level produced a single sherd of 19th-century ware.

27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2