2014:484 - The tea-room, St Patrick’s Park, Dublin 8, Dublin

The alcoves of the Park Constable’s lodge in St Patrick’s Park, which forms part of the southern end of a Victorian raised terrace, are being converted into new tea-rooms with a new outdoor area. A desk-study was completed which used the results of archaeological investigations carried out in the grounds of St Patrick’s Cathedral directly to the east and information from several previously-excavated test-pits within the alcove. The development was sensitively designed to lie above the estimated archaeological levels and the only area of potential impact identified was in construction of a below-ground rain barrel, the exact location of which had not been decided.

Three distinct phases of monitoring were carried out:

1) Excavation within the alcoves (and the lowering of the floor level

2) Excavation for the services inside and outside the building

3) Monitoring and excavation of the trench for the rain-water harvesting tank.

The excavation within the alcoves

The excavation within the alcoves was carried out by mechanical excavator and by hand, the concrete floor coming off on to a very hard black aggregate fill to a depth of 0.3m. No earlier floor levels or archaeological layers were exposed. The main walls of the alcoves were also stripped revealing that they are built of solid yellow brick, on solid foundations, and projected out by 80mm in width by 0.2m in depth. The brick arches to the front of the alcove had been blocked up previously in brick and this was carefully broken out and the original opes re-instated.

Service excavations

All the services were replaced and up-graded as part of the development and this involved excavation through an introduced upper cultivation layer sitting over a mixed layer of rubble and clay. No archaeological features were located.

Rain-water harvesting tank

It was decided to position the rain-water harvesting tank at the southern side of the site just west of the south alcove (2.1m west of the south alcove and 1.3m north of the park railings). The upper levels of the trench, which was 2.2m in depth, measured 2.2m east-west by 2m, narrowing to approximately 1.8m square at the base. The excavation exposed the north-western corner of a large stone medieval structure, very truncated but likely to be related to the Chantor’s Manse, known to be located in this area. The remains lay at 1.1m below present ground level but were badly damaged at the southern end. The northern wall measured 2.05m in length and was 0.9m in depth but extended beyond the limit of excavation of the eastern side while the western wall was a similar length and depth but was truncated at the southern end. Excavation of the upper levels revealed it was a large structure, at least 1.1m in width, the wall composed of four main courses of large rectangular blocks, with smaller filling courses in between each course. The blocks measured, on average, between 0.3m by 0.5m and 0.4m and 0.5m and were roughly hewn, similar to the masonry of the city wall. The structure was mortared with an off-white crumbly mortar, which contained charcoal and visible shell fleck throughout, and sat on light brown silty clay which contained no red brick but had charcoal and shell fleck inclusions throughout, suggesting a medieval archaeological soil. A deposit of dark grey heavy silt had built up against the face of both walls to a depth of 0.6m and this also contained shell, charcoal and two sherds of medieval pottery. A layer of crushed demolition material sealed the north wall and this was composed of limestone fragments and 18th-century brick, presumably associated with the demolition of the brick terraces in this area in c. 1900. The west wall, bonded in the north wall, was also traced for 2m in length (north-south) but was truncated at the southern end in the modern era and therefore did not continue, unlike the northern wall. The west wall, at its highest, stood at 0.9m, composed of four courses but reducing to one course at the southern end. It was built of similar limestone blocks and identical mortar indicating that both walls were part of the same build. Only a small section of this structure was exposed and it is not clear if it represented an actual building or a boundary wall. The date of the corner and the fact it was sealed by 18th-century demolition material probably suggests that it is part of the Chantor’s Manse, a building that was still in existence as late as 1890. On the earlier map by John Rocque, dated 1756, a large L–shaped building, which is shaded rather than dotted, is likely to represent this former medieval building, evidently incorporated into later build.

28 Cabinteely Close, Cabinteely, Dublin 18