County: Dublin Site name: Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 11E0410 ext.
Author: Dermot Nelis
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 712965m, N 733920m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.343434, -6.303536
Monitoring was carried out by Dermot Nelis, Melanie McQuade and Antoine Giacometti to facilitate construction of a lift shaft to the south of the west archway in the West Wing of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 8. Fieldwork took place intermittently between 10 October and 12 November 2013, and in total took 53 hours to complete over a 15-day period. In agreement with the City Archaeologist, the majority of monitoring consisted of carrying out one to two one-hour site inspections per day.
Hand excavation within the lift shaft area began by using a kango fitted with a spade bit and a shovel. This resulted in the ground level being reduced by approximately 0.7m to below the base of the existing masonry wall. A clay pipe stem and two sherds of medieval pottery were identified within the excavated ground.
The second phase of excavation involved hand-digging two east-west trenches to accommodate shoring braces. Both trenches measured 0.3m deep x 0.3m wide and fully extended from the eastern to the western end of the excavation area.
The third phase on site involved the excavation of underpinning works, and this took the form of hand-dug pits measuring approximately 1m x 1m, located along the northern, western and south western walls.
No archaeological features or additional artefacts were revealed during monitoring.
36 Fingal Street, Dublin 8
