County: Dublin Site name: Frederick Street North/Blessington Street, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018–020, 018–020(495) Licence number: 10E0152
Author: Melanie McQuade, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715321m, N 735451m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.356678, -6.267613
Monitoring of geotechnical ground investigations at 11 locations on Parnell Square North, Frederick Street North, Dorset Street Lower, Blessington Street, St Joseph’s Parade and St Joseph’s Place was carried out ahead of the proposed Metro North. Hand-dug inspection pits measuring 0.5m by 0.5m and 1.2m deep were excavated at each borehole location. Shell and auger percussion drilling rigs were used to sample to lower levels of material in each of the boreholes.
Two levels of a cobbled surface, probably part of the original 19th-century road, were uncovered at Parnell Square North, where they sealed a deep deposit of garden soil, the lower levels of which may potentially be medieval in date. Georgian cellars were uncovered at two locations along North Fredrick Street, at Nos 21 and 22 (RPS 3002, 3003) and at No. 26, and garden soils of 18th/19th-century date were uncovered at St Joseph’s Place and Blessington Court. Natural ground was encountered at depths of between 0.7m and 1.7m below present ground level and there was evidence for pre-existing ground disturbance along the route of the proposed scheme, predominantly arising from the insertion of utilities.
