2009:311 - MATER CAMPUS HOSPITAL DEVELOPMENT, ECCLES STREET, DUBLIN, Dublin

Bulk excavation works associated with the hospital development were monitored. A previously demolished nurses’ home covered much of the northern end of the site and an underground service tunnel running east–west across the centre of the site and north–south from the northern end of the site was removed during the course of works. The energy centre building which occupied the north-eastern end of the site had a number of underground oil tanks beneath it. The foundations and basement floor levels of these buildings were cut into the subsoil at depths of between 0.8m and 2m below the existing ground level along North Circular Road and together with their associated services they had caused much ground disturbance and would have removed most of the archaeological material that may have existed on this part of the site. However, an area of post-medieval garden soil was identified on the southern end of the site and a series of north–south-orientated linear features were recorded on the north-western end of the site.
The garden soil on the southern end of the site occupied the garden area to the rear of the houses on Eccles Street and may pre-date the construction of these late 18th/early 19th-century structures. A series of four linear furrows, a drainage ditch and two large pits were identified cutting into that post-medieval garden soil c. 1m below the existing ground level. The furrows and the drainage ditch on the southern end of the site were aligned along a similar north–south axis to the property boundaries evident on the historic maps, which may infer that they are contemporary, dating from the late 18th century. The furrows were an average of 0.3m wide and were set at intervals of c. 4.5m. The drainage ditch was set to the west of the furrows and was 13.5m long, 0.8m wide and 0.3m deep. One of the large pits was cut into the garden soil and the other cut the drainage ditch. The ceramic finds recovered from these features date between the 17th and 19th centuries. The earlier pieces were found alongside 18th-century wares and it is likely that the 17th-century material represents a reworking of earlier deposits in the vicinity.
A north–south-orientated ditch on the north of the site was 1.45m wide by 0.15m deep. Its fill contained 18th/19th-century ceramics and glass. Two smaller linear drainage features were located towards the centre of the site. These were just 0.5m wide.
No pre-17th-century finds were identified during the monitoring programme and there was no evidence for activity on the site prior to the post-medieval period. Thus the archaeological evidence corresponds with the cartographic information, indicating that the site was not developed prior to the late 18th/early 19th century.