County: Dublin Site name: Springvale, Chapelizod Road, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E003946
Author: Antoine Giacometti, Arch-Tech Ltd, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Site type: 19th-century quarry
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 710527m, N 734326m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.347598, -6.339989
Test-trenching was undertaken in advance of a proposed residential development at Springvale, Chapelizod Road, Dublin 20. The site is situated to the south-west of Phoenix Park and abuts the Phoenix Park wall.
No significant archaeological material was identified on the site in any of the twelve test-trenches excavated, and the results of the testing programme as a whole suggest that no archaeological material survives anywhere on the proposed development site, with the exception of the standing Deer Park Wall which forms the north-eastern site boundary. This wall, which is a protected structure and a recorded monument as part of the deerpark of the Phoenix Park (DU018–00701), will be retained in the proposed development. Although the author has some doubt about whether the fabric of the wall dates to the late 17th century as is historically attested to, excavation of the wall foundations broadly supported this early date.
Despite historical records suggesting that prehistoric material was previously identified within the development site in the 1830s, extensive 19th-century sand or gravel quarrying activity (covering almost the entire development site by the 1870s), removed all potential archaeological deposits. A small area at the eastern tip of the site appears to have not been as extensively quarried, and this area was subject to more intensive test-trenching in order to identify potential pre-19th-century material. None was exposed.
The quarry appears to have been backfilled at the turn of the 20th century and a rich assemblage of lower-/working-class domestic artefacts from this period was identified at the south-western quarry edge. These objects (many more of which are still located in the development site), whilst being of some specialist interest, were not felt to constitute significant archaeological material.
Following the backfill of the quarry, a residence named as Springvale was constructed on the development site in the early 20th century. At this time, the site would probably have looked very different to its present appearance and have sloped down gently from Chapelizod Road to Phoenix Park. When the house was demolished, a large volume of rubble was spread out over the development site, creating a level platform and forming the present artificial ditch to the north-east of the site.
