2013:522 - College Park, Trinity College, Dublin, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin is currently undergoing an upgrading of all major services and this report refers to two such work programmes. The first is the construction of a new water-main running east-west along the northern side of the rugby playing field, in College Park, while the second involved the complete re-surfacing of the rugby pitch. The trench for new water-main measured 0.6m in width by 0.8m in depth and ran along the northern edge of the pitch, tying into an existing main at the eastern end of the field. This was excavated mechanically and by hand.

The works to the pitch surface involved the removal of topsoil and the excavation of eighteen long narrow drainage channels, which were orientated north-south and extended the full width of the pitch. These measured, on average, 0.1m in width by 0.8m in depth and were spaced at intervals between 7m and 9m apart. They were backfilled with pea-gravel.
The western end of College was originally low-lying marsh, bounded by the river Liffey to the north, the area acting as a giant soak-way for the many streams and rivulets running down from the higher ground on the south. Archaeological monitoring programmes in and around this end of college have established that the natural ground in this area is made up of gravels and silts, which confirms this wet location. Historically, the college struggled to drain it and a large ditch was constructed which originally extended across the rugby playing fields from west to east. This is marked as a major feature on John Rocque’s map of Dublin, dated 1756. Work began on infilling this area and reclaiming it in a concentrated way from the mid 18th century and this continued into the 19th century. It was achieved by simply dumping in waste material and raising the ground level by over 2m.

Demolition rubble from the great clearance of the Old College quadrangle in Front Square was used along the northern half of the rugby pitch, the rubble providing handy solid material for infilling. At the eastern end, however, the infill was mostly organic refuse, the rubbish generated from the college inhabitants.

This monitoring programme has confirmed the presence of demolition infill deposits across the rugby pitch, as indicated by a previous monitoring programme along the pedestrian walk-way, which borders the rugby pitch on the southern side. The east-west water-main on the northern side of the pitch confirms that these deposits extend from the pedestrian route in the south, as far north as the east-west internal college access road. Of significance was the concentration of domestic refuse at the eastern end of the water-main trench, at the north-east corner of the rugby pitch, which was particularly rich in ceramic and glass artefacts. These deposits also contained shells, animal bone, cinders, ash - suggesting they came from domestic habitation presumably from within the college.

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