2011:201 - PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN, Dublin

Monitoring of groundworks was undertaken on 11 and 12 May 2011, during preparation works for the Bloom 2011 garden show. The work was carried out to the west of the tower-house (DU018-00702) and walled gardens at Ashtown Castle, Phoenix Park, Dublin.
This work was carried out under an extension to licence 05E0307, originally issued to Eoin Halpin (with Stephen Doyle) for testing within the walled garden undertaken during April and September 2005 (Excavations 2005, no. 469). Monitoring was subsequently undertaken during the preparation works for Bloom 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The area immediately to the west of the walled garden was divided into 24 numbered plots. Only two of the gardens to be constructed in this area involved substantial subsurface excavation; the remaining plots did not require archaeological monitoring.
Plot 9 involved the excavation of a rectangular area, which measured 11m by 7m and was excavated to a depth of 0.48–0.7m, to facilitate the construction of a water feature. The excavation was carried out by a mechanical excavator fitted with a toothless grading bucket. The cutting was excavated through an approximately 0.05m-thick layer of sod, 0.2m of topsoil and a 0.15–0.2m-thick layer of grey-brown garden soil with patches of modern debris, concentrated towards the northern end of the cutting. These deposits overlay a yellow sandy clay subsoil, on the surface of which were exposed a number of agricultural furrows, indicative of cross-ploughing, consisting of linear bands of darker sandy clay soil containing small clinker and red brick fragments. These furrows, which ran in both a north–south and an east–west direction, measured 0.25m in average width and 0.02–0.05m in depth. Three north–south-running furrows and five east–west-running furrows were identified.
A square cutting was excavated to facilitate a pump for the water feature at the western side of the main cutting, approximately 3.5m from the northern edge of the plot. This pump pit measured 1.4m in width and 1.7m in depth and was excavated through the sandy subsoil layer, which measured 0.25–0.3m in thickness, into underlying sandy gravel subsoil. In addition, sixteen tree-planting pits, 1.2m wide, were excavated to a depth of 0.7m around the northern, southern and eastern edges of the main cutting. Aside from the furrow remnants described above, nothing of archaeological significance was revealed during the course of these works.
At plot 12 the proposed garden necessitated the excavation of three areas to a depth of 0.6m or over. The largest of these was an east–west-aligned subrectangular sunken garden, which measured 5.8m by 5m and 0.6m in depth. The upper 0.1–0.2m of excavated material consisted of loose topsoil, while the remaining depth was occupied by mottled grey-brown silty clay soil, which contained a large amount of modern debris, clearly backfill from the previous years’ excavations, including timber and hardcore gravel. The natural subsoil was not exposed in this cutting and no features of archaeological significance were revealed.
Two further areas were excavated within this plot to accommodate tree-planting. The first of these measured 3.2m east–west by 2.2m and was excavated to a depth of 0.7m. The upper 0.14m of excavated material within this cutting consisted of loose topsoil, which overlay a further 0.2m of more firmly compacted brown topsoil, which in turn overlay a 0.1–0.15m-thick layer of redeposited yellow sandy clay. The lowest exposed layer within the cutting consisted of a grey silty clay deposit containing occasional red brick and clinker fragments. As with the larger cutting described above, the natural subsoil was not exposed in this cutting and no features of archaeological significance were revealed.
The second planting pit measured approximately 2m in width and was excavated to a depth of 0.6m. The upper 0.3m of excavated material consisted of loose garden soil, which overlay a further 0.3m of grey silty clay with occasional clinker and red brick fragments. This lower deposit overlay yellow sandy clay, which may have been natural subsoil or alternately may have been the redeposited clay layer identified in the larger planting pit to the south.
No archaeological features, deposits or artefacts were revealed during the monitoring of either garden plot.

Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Unit 4,The Print House, 22–23 South Cumberland Street, Dublin 2