County: Dublin Site name: Seaview Terrace, Donnybrook
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0199
Author: Gill McLoughlin, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, 120b Greenpark Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 718150m, N 731316m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.318919, -6.226673
A programme of monitoring was carried out at Seaview Terrace, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, in response to the construction of the gas pipeline replacement scheme. The work was carried out for Arup Consulting Engineers on behalf of Bord Gáis Éireann. The gas pipeline travels from Irishtown to Belfield in the southern part of Dublin city and was confined to the existing road network.
The pipeline running along Ailesbury Road and Seaview Terrace (Simmonscourt Ward) passes through the RMP constraint surrounding DU022–084, a burial site. This burial mound was excavated in the late 19th century without archaeological supervision and as such only a vague report remains on the site. A report presented by Sir William Frazer in 1879 states that 600–700 individuals were interred in the mound accompanied by weaponry and numerous grave goods. Although there is confusion over Frazer’s directions for the location of the burial mound, it is thought by Hall (1978) that the site was situated to the west of Seaview Terrace and to the south of a disused road. A reassessment of the site by Elizabeth O’Brien in 1992 interpreted the burial mound as an Early Christian enclosed cemetery with a later insertion of a Viking warrior burial (O’Brien 1998, 220).
A continuous archaeological presence was maintained for all ground disturbances within the vicinity of the constraint of the mound DU022–084. Intermittent monitoring of the remainder of the scheme was also undertaken.
Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered. Monitoring of the construction work will continue into 2011.
References
Frazer, W. 1879 Description of a great sepulchral mound at Aylesbury Road, near Donnybrook, Co. Dublin, containing human and animal remains, as well as some objects of antiquarian interest, referable to the tenth or eleventh centuries. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Series 2, Vol 2 (1879–88), 29–55.
Hall, R.A. 1978 A Viking-age grave at Donnybrook, Co. Dublin. Medieval Archaeology 22, 64–83.
O’Brien, E. 1998 The location and context of Viking burials at Kilmainham and Islandbridge, Dublin. In H.B. Clarke, M. Ní Mhaoinaigh and R. Ó Floinn (eds), Ireland and the Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, 203–221. Cornwall.
