2014:480 - 822 Howth Road/7 Kilbarrack Road, Raheny, Dublin 3, Dublin

Testing was followed by a monitoring programme carried out at a development site at the corner of the Howth Road and Kilbarrack Road. DU015-083, the site of a ‘fort’ defined on the 6 inch Ordnance Survey map (1837) of which there is no trace above ground, is within the site. The new infill development involved the construction of four houses with gardens and attendant grounds. The fort shown on the map is defined by what appears to be a curving ditch along the southern side with a rectangular building north of the ditch, although this building may not be related to fort. Despite the fact the fort is not shown on Rocque’s map of the suburbs, dated to 1760, Kilbarrack Road does kink out at the southern end where it meets the Howth Road and this may reflect the eastern side of a circular enclosure now gone but still in existence in 1760. This kink can be traced in all the succeeding cartographic sources and is visible in the road today.

Testing was carried out in June 2014 and established that the entire site had been very truncated in the past, exposing subsoil in various locations. The assessment located the line of the original foreshore running along the Howth Road frontage, positioned approximately 8m inside the site hoarding. This foreshore was made up of deep layers of sand and silt, naturally deposited by the sea and lapping over solid boulder clay, which runs parallel to the Howth Road. The modern Howth Road therefore is built on reclaimed ground. The assessment located some sort of ditch feature in the general location indicated by the 1837 map, and this ditch was cut through the foreshore deposits at the southern end of the site, running parallel to the Howth Road. It was substantial in size and measured approximately 6m wide by 1.8m deep, filled with a mix of deposits from sticky yellow clay, sandy soils, black gravel deposits and, in one location pottery sherds suggestive of an infill date in the late 19th century. The location of the ditch along the coastline and the dating of pottery from the fill may suggest it formed part of the Napoleonic defence system of the late 18th century although this is not certain as the site was so disturbed.

There was no firm evidence of the building shown on the 1837 map but finds of 18th/19th-century industrial brick north of the ditch (Trench 4) do suggest the presence of a building of this date in this location. The rest of the site consisted of truncated clays over subsoil, with subsoil lying on average, between 0.4m and 0.6m below present ground level. A localised area of burning was also identified in the north-west corner of the site, which was also post-medieval in date.

The site was monitored as a mitigating strategy and, as part of this, the footprint of the two southern houses were moved to avoid the ditch and the excavation for the foundation trenches was monitored. An area of burning was also avoided and no additional archaeological features were noted during monitoring.

28 Cabinteely Close, Old Bray Road, Cabinteely, Dublin 18.