County: Dublin Site name: Golden Lane, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0343
Author: Edmond O’Donovan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Urban, medieval and post-medieval settlement remains
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715291m, N 733798m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.341839, -6.268666
A third phase of test excavation was carried out on a proposed development site located to the immediate north of the early ecclesiastic church site of St Michael le Pole (DU018–020/82, 83) between Chancery Lane and Ship Street Great in Dublin. The earlier two phases of test excavation at the site are reported in Excavations 2007, No. 467. The site is located to the north of significant archaeological excavations conducted by the writer in Golden Lane in 2005 (Excavations 2005, No. 442, 04E1030).
The church site of St Michael le Pole (established c. ad 700) acted as a focus for later burial and settlement activity. Archaeological deposits found during the investigation dated from the medieval (1200–1540) and early post-medieval (1540–1690) and later post-medieval (1690–1800) periods.
No definitive pre-Norman archaeological deposits were uncovered during the investigations on the proposed development site, although it is likely that some early non-burial activity is located at the site. Identifying archaeology on the boulder clay in liner test-trenches greater than 1m deep is very difficult. The excavations strongly suggest that the burial horizon is contained within the graveyard marked on the historic maps. It is clear that the cemetery never extended north of this boundary. It would appear likely that the western edge of the cemetery no longer survives and has been heavily truncated by later 18th-century cellars and other post-medieval activity.
The archaeological deposit profile within the development site is not consistent. The earliest and most significant deposits are located both within and immediately adjacent to the St Michael le Pole church site. Later medieval and post-medieval deposits do extend across the site, although the content of the medieval layers appears to be marginal at the northern and western end of the site. Late 17th-and early 18th-century cellars and post-medieval activity have truncated earlier deposits significantly along the Chancery Lane and Ship Street Great street frontages.
