2016:521 - 19-22 Aungier Street (rear of), Dublin, Dublin

Testing, by means of 5 machine-dug test trenches, was undertaken in March 2016, on a proposed hotel development site to the rear of Nos 19-22 Aungier Street, Dublin 2. The proposed development is located in an archaeologically and historically important part of Dublin. It is surrounded by an oval enclosure, which it has been suggested dates to the Early Christian period. There are three ‘religious’ sites within this enclosure, that of St Peter to the north-west, St Stephen to the north-east and St Mary to the west. The boundaries to these establishments have been postulated by the projection of archaeological evidence, in the case of St Peter’s (Coughlan 2003) and on cartographic evidence, in the main, for St Stephen’s and St Mary’s (Duddy 2003). If correct, it would suggest that the present proposal lies at the extreme eastern side of the boundary associated with St Mary’s, indeed it is possible that Bow Lane East forms part of the boundary which may once have existed between St Stephen’s to the north and St Mary’s to the south. Archaeological excavations in the vicinity have not uncovered any evidence for deposits dating to the Early Christian period, and any boundary ditches excavated have tended to date to the later Anglo-Norman period, and elsewhere nothing dated earlier than around 1100 (Simpson 2010).

Skeletal remains associated with St Stephen’s hospital have been found across much of the north-east quadrant of the postulated Early Christian enclosure, in an area defined by Stephen’s Street, Bow Lane East and Digges Lane. Of particular importance to the present proposal were the investigations carried out in advance of the development on the north side of Bow Lane East by Audrey Gahan and James Eogan (Excavations 2000-0276 and 0277). Here the remains of some 11 individuals were found all of which were considered by the excavators to be associated with St Stephen’s hospital. One grave contained three individuals and a second contained two. Generally the burials were laid out on their backs with their heads at the west. A sherd of glazed locally made medieval pottery in the fill of one of the graves suggests that these burials were no earlier than the late 12th century.

Trench 5 was examined closely for the presence of any skeletal remains. The fact that none were uncovered is important, in as much as it supports the present hypothesis that the line of Bow Lane East represents the survival of a boundary, with St Stephen’s Church and Hospital to the north, with its associated burials and graveyard and the precinct of St Mary’s to the south, where cartographic evidence and the results of the testing would suggest there are no skeletal remains present. The cartographic evidence suggests that the potential larger Early Christian enclosure was well preserved in the streetscape of Dublin in 1756 when Rocque published his map. It was not recorded on the earlier map by John Speed, but as Simpson points out Speed’s map of 1610 is badly out of scale and in any case only depicts the northern curve of the enclosure.

The testing results have shown that Rocque is remarkably accurate in his recording of plots to the rear of both Aungier Street and ‘Beaux Lane’. Rocque’s map records that the plots to the rear of Aungier Street ran east to exit out onto Bow Lane, indicating that, for the area of the present development at least, there were no houses fronting out onto Bow Lane in the mid-18th century, and that the majority of the site consisted for the most part of rear plots, out-buildings and gardens.

The testing results were remarkably consistent, showing a level of archaeological garden soil averaging 1m in depth, right across the site, the base of which would appear to be around 10m OD. Any location where Rocque recorded walls, walls were uncovered, and any location where Rocque suggested that there were buildings, the testing revealed evidence for multiple floor surfaces.

No evidence was found for skeletal remains, which might have been expected towards the eastern side of the site, closer to the area of St Stephen’s Hospital. Indeed the relatively paucity of finds in general was noteworthy. Although it was not possible to examine the deposits within the test trenches in situ, careful note of the spoil was maintained, and apart from the deposit of animal bone and oyster shell from the pit in Trench 2, no significant finds were recovered.

The substantial ‘ditch’ feature noted in Trench 2 is noteworthy, particularly if examined in the light of the work undertaken by Burke in 1972 on the Aungier Estate. In her article on the subject, she illustrates the various landownership within the estate in the mid-18th century. Although not precise, Burke suggests that there was a division of lands belonging to the Cuffe’s to the north and the Abercorn’s to the south, with the boundary line running east-west across the footprint of the proposed development site. It is therefore possible that the substantial 4m wide and 1.5m deep ditch represents the remains of this land division. It is therefore probable that the present site was always ‘back lands’, originally open fields in the Early Christian period, developing into more formal plots to the rear of Aungier Street which was laid out in the late 17th century. It is likely therefore that the present development site was, between the 11th century or before and the start of the 18th century, largely ‘rural’ albeit within an ‘urban’ context. There may however be an element of earlier plot divisions, or a rudimentary field system associated with the area being part of St Mary’s precinct lands. If this were the case, archaeology in the form of subsoil cut curvilinear ditches, gullies, pits, post-holes etc might be uncovered, underlying to more rigid and linear plot divisions of the 17th century.

References:

Burke, N. 1972. ‘An Early Modern Dublin Suburb: The Estate of Francis Aungier, Earl of Longford’, Irish Geography, VI (1972).

Coughlan. T,  2003, ‘Excavations at the medieval cemetery of St Peter’s church, Dublin’ in Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin IV, 11-39. Dublin.

Duddy, C.  2003, ‘The role of St Thomas's Abbey in the early development of Dublin's western suburb’ in Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin IV, 79-97. Dublin.

Simpson, L. 2010 ‘The archaeological remains of Viking and Medieval Dublin: Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research (INSTAR) - A research framework. Dublin City Council & Margaret Gowan Ltd.

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