2013:049 - Marlborough Street, Dublin, Dublin

A total of 23 slit trenches were excavated along Marlborough Street, with one slit trench on the corner of Marlborough Street and Parnell Street, one on the corner of Marlborough Street and Eden Quay and finally one on the corner of Marlborough Street and Sean McDermot Street. These were all classed as unknown cellars, i.e. cellars which were accessed through their crowns on the exterior of the building. In addition to the unknown were known cellars, these were accessed from within the building or through a lightwell on the exterior. All accessible cellars were subject to a written record detailing the walls, the floor, the vault, the coal hole, ope/s and any additional features noted within the interior such as form holes or buttresses. A photographic and drawn record was also completed together with two survey points and two floor levels.

The cellars recorded on Marlborough Street were constructed using both handmade and machine produced red and yellow bricks. They were mainly rectangular in plan and averaged 2.5m x 3.5m x 1.7m in height with the springer level ranging from 0.2m to 0.9m. The coal holes were roughly centrally placed within the vault and their diameters averaged 0.45m. The floors varied from clay types, tiled, limestone flag and granite slab. Their state of preservation varied also from poor to excellent and the majority of the cellars were rubble filled with an occasional cellar filled using concrete. Most contained a single doorway ope which would have led to an insulation passage. The function of these cellars was for storing coal.

Analysis of the findings is on-going.

Archaeology and Built Heritage, 79 Queen Street, Dublin 7