County: Dublin Site name: 6–8 Hendrick Street, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0492
Author: Antoine Giacometti, Arch-Tech Ltd, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Site type: 18th-century houses
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 714466m, N 734462m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.347987, -6.280802
Test-trenching was conducted at Nos 6–8 Hendrick Street, Dublin 7, in advance of a proposed development covering Nos 6–11 Hendrick Street. The site, consisting of six former housing plots, currently contains two commercial premises, one of which is still in use, which is why this testing programme covered only the eastern half of the site. The site is situated directly to the east of an 18th/19th-century dwelling at No. 12 Hendrick Street (DU018–020–185), a late medieval bowling green (DU018–020–310), and human burials uncovered during pre-development testing at Nos 13–14 Hendrick Street (DU018–020–826).
Three test-trenches were excavated. No archaeological remains prior to the construction of Nos 6–8 Hendrick Street in the 18th century survive within the bounds of the proposed development site. There was no archaeological evidence for the presence of burials or evidence to suggest the site had formed part of the late-medieval bowling green; however, extensive 18th- or 19th-century scarping associated with the construction of the houses to the front of the site (south) and later buildings to the rear (north) may account for the absence of earlier material.
The testing revealed the backfilled basements of the three 18th-century buildings, depicted on Rocque’s map of 1756, which had previously stood on the eastern side of the proposed development site. A rear return was identified to the east of the middle building (No. 7) as well as one internal subdividing wall in the eastern basement (No. 6) and a chimneystack between the eastern and central building (Nos 6 and 7). To the rear of the buildings a large portion of the site was found to have been disturbed in recent years; however, some outbuildings were also identified, mainly associated with the central building (No. 7). These possibly correlate with the buildings depicted on the 1939 revision of the OS map, suggesting a late 19th- or early 20th-century date for their construction.
Further test-trenching will be required in the future within the western half of the proposed site.
