County: Dublin Site name: STAR FORT, CHESTERFIELD AVENUE, PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018-007012 Licence number: 11E0403
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen
Site type: Bastioned fort
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 711578m, N 735651m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.359280, -6.323744
In the course of monitoring (see above, No. 203), two patches of dark soft ground were observed at the locations where ponds were shown on the first edition of the OS six-inch map. This was the site where the star fort had previously been shown: the ponds were the remains of the moat.
The eastern pond was the wider of the two, because it was diagonal relative to the line of the present road. It was over 2.4m deep and was almost entirely filled with a sticky grey clay, mostly archaeologically sterile but somewhat blotchy in places, as if resulting from a more mixed backfill. Below this, left in situ, was a dark organic layer with well-preserved plant fibres. A metal-detector survey of the material from the grey layer produced an iron nail.
The western pond was narrower, as it ran perpendicular to the line of the current road. Again it was filled with a fairly homogeneous grey clay, but the darker layer underneath was very thin. A metal-detector survey of the material from the grey layer produced a coin (an Irish penny of 1805).
In the interior of the fort, two French drains, one culvert, a curvilinear ditch and a linear pit were found. The culvert and French drains were part of the drainage system of the park and the road, as found during monitoring. There were no finds from any of these features.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Dublin 6W, for Project Director Valerie J. Keeley
