2014:489 - Rugby playing field, Trinity College, Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, Dublin

Trinity College Dublin has recently carried out a number of improvements works at the rugby playing field in College Park. These works include: 1) the installation of six flood lights, three on either side of the pitch, the installation of a new water-main that ran along the northern side of the pitch, the installation of a new drainage system consisting of a series of narrow channels cut through the topsoil, which were then filled with pea-gravel, and the complete resurfacing of the pitch. The playing fields are located at the eastern end of the college precinct, lying to the east of the site of the medieval priory of All Hallows and the Old College c. 1592, both Recorded Monuments (DU018: 020-044: DU018: 020-391). College Park, where the rugby pitch is located, was originally low-lying marshy ground that flanked the Old College quadrangle on the west. This land eventually acquired and, by the mid 18th century, the southern end was formally laid out as wooded areas and open ground. The northern end, however, continued to be wet and marshy ground.
The monitoring programme confirmed that College Park was infilled or reclaimed from the mid-to-late 18th century onwards by infilling the area with a mix of demolition material and domestic refuse, which gradually built up the ground level by approximately 1.50m. This was also the findings of a previous monitoring programme by the writer along the pedestrian route, which bounds the rugby pitch along the southern side (Excavations 2012, 212). The rubble deposits of limestone and brick found at the western end of the field are most likely to have originated during the great clearances and demolitions from the mid 18th century onwards when the Old College quadrangle was demolished and work began on new great western frontage, in and around 1752 (and only completed in 1759). Thus, began the emergence of the monumental Front Square, originally known as Parliament Square, with the Dining hall constructed between 1760 and 1765, the Public theatre between 1777 and 1786 and the new chapel between 1787 and 1798. The infilling programme was not confined to College Park however, as the entire college precinct appears to have been raised up in this manner, with infill deposits noted in Front Square, College Green and the Provost’s House.
The trench for the new water-main was located along the northern side of the rugby playing field, orientated east and extending for 144m in length. It measured 0.60m width by, on average, 0.80m in depth and terminated in a newly-constructed man-hole in the road at the eastern end of college.
Typical profile
West end
0.00m - 0.10m: Topsoil/sod
0.10m - 0.40m: Dark brown organic clay with brick, animal bone, stone and mortar inclusions. This has 19th -century ceramic material.
0.40m - 0.72m: Crushed limestone rubble, with light yellow mortar containing occasional brick. The bricks are half-bricks, heavy and bright orange in colour and dated to the 18th –century. This represents demolition material, probably from the great clearances of the mid 18th century of the Old College quadrangle.
At 5m
0.00m - 0.10m: Topsoil/sod
0.10m - 0.80m: Dark brown organic clay mixed with brick, stone and mortar inclusions. This deposit also included animal bones.
0.80m+- Rounded cobbles and rounded stones measuring, on average, 0.30m in diameter. This was a loose deposit forming part of the infill deposits.

Middle section
0.10m - 0.35m: Dark brown organic clay with brick, animal bone, stone and mortar inclusions, as above but with more brick and limestone fragments (0.15m in diameter) in this location
0.35m - 0.72m: Pure mortar deposit, white and crumbly with small fragments of limestone, 30mm in diameter. This is a banded deposit, suggesting this end was infilled in an organized and systematic way.

Eastern end
0.00m - 0.15m: Topsoil
0.30m - 0.40m: Dark brown organic clay with brick, stone and mortar, as above
0.40m - 0.60m: A layer of loose friable organic cellar fill, containing oyster shells, animal bone fragments, charcoal fragments and shell. This is a continuation of the domestic refuse deposits from the college and suggests that this was a dumping area, probably for reclamation, in the 18th century.

The new drainage ducts were spread throughout the rugby field, extending the full length of the pitch, and orientated north-south, spaced at intervals between 7m and 9m (east-west). A total of 18 slit trenches were excavated, feeding into the water-main at the northern side. The slit trenches measured 800mm in depth by 100mm in width at the top, narrowing to between 30mm and 40mm at the base. They were filled with pea-gravel.
General stratigraphic sequence
0.00m - 0.35m: Cultivated sod
0.35m - 0.45m: Crushed mortar and brick demolition material.
0.45m - 0.75m: Pure black river silt with small stones and grit. This is re-deposited riverine deposits.
0.75m+: Crushed brick rubble, layered and very dense. The brick is mostly composed of half-bricks, heavy and bright orange in colour, dating to the 18th century. This is demolition rubble.
The six floodlights were installed without supervision but in areas already tested by the above works.

28 Cabinteely Close, Cabinteely, Dublin 18