County: Dublin Site name: Portraine Demesne
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 15E0396
Author: Red Tobin
Site type: 18th-20th-century structures
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 724794m, N 750392m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.488728, -6.119474
Monitoring of all ground work was carried out as part of the advanced works contract prior to the construction of the National Forensic Mental Health Services Campus at Portrane, Co Dublin. The EIA deemed the development site to be of low archaeological risk but required specific investigations into the remains of the Temporary Asylum which was erected on the site to accommodate the overflow of the Richmond Asylum in Dublin. The Temporary Asylum consisted of Portrane House and its outbuildings augmented with three pre-fabricated structures to accommodate 400 patients prior to the completion of Portrane Asylum (St Ita's Hospital).
Works on site recorded the remnants of the basement level of Portrane House and the foundation levels of its outbuildings including a very well preserved subterranean service passage. Two detached temporary blocks were recorded plus the fragmented remains of a third which overlay the outbuildings of the Georgian house. The basement level of Portrane House remains intact and preserved in situ.
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