2016:709 - John's Lane East, Dublin 8, Dublin

Testing took place within the grounds of the Dublin Civic Offices at John’s Lane East, south of Christ Church Cathedral, on behalf of Dublin City Council. The site is located on the southern side of the Dublin Civic Offices and includes the Fishamble entrance and steps at the eastern end, extending westwards along as far west as Winetavern Street. This area originally formed part of the Wood Quay excavations carried out by the National Museum of Ireland and included an excavation cutting known as ‘Winetavern Street’ at the extreme western end of the lane, flanked by two additional conjoined cuttings known ‘John’s Lane’ to the north-west. The areas in between the cuttings, however, are presumed to have intact Viking and Anglo-Norman deposits, up to 4m in depth. This was found to be the case to the west of the Civic Office (west of the crèche) where a section of the city wall still survives, the western end of which was located within the foundations of a later brick building during investigative works associated with a new fire-escape.
Within the site at the eastern end (and west of the stepped entrance into the Fishamble Street entrance) lies the known graveyard of the church of St John of Bothe Street, marked by several ex-situ grave-slabs laid flat on the ground. The church formerly stood at the eastern end of John’s Lane East, fronting onto Fishamble Street (the southern end of Fishamble Street was originally known at Bothe Street). Subsequent works for Dublin City Council by the writer at the eastern end of the lane (at the junction of Fishamble Street) found intact deposits, exposing the medieval remains of a small tower, most likely to have formed part of the original medieval church, lying close to the present ground level.
The testing (10 trenches) did establish that the graveyard deposits are in situ in and around the grave-slabs, sealed by approximately 1m of rubble and clay fill but with numerous human bones within this fill. These clearly represented disarticulated remains from the graveyard. South of the graveyard, the foundations of the rear of the limestone and brick houses that originally fronted onto the lane were also found intact and in good condition, lying 0.9m beneath the present ground level and extending to 1.8m in depth. Along the southern side of the site bordering the laneway, the surprise find was the remains of an old car-park indicating that this area might not have been excavated during the Wood Quay campaign suggesting that there is likely to be up to between 3m and 4m of Viking and medieval organic deposits beneath the house foundations here, predominantly Viking in date. The testing also established that there are intact structural remains at the south-east corner of the site, within the general footprint of St John’s church, later replaced by a Mission Hall. As previous investigations to the east on Fishamble Street found the medieval tower of that church, there are likely to be significant remains of this building lying just 0.7m below present ground level (11.5m O.D.) This testing also identified medieval soils lying at 1.8m below present ground level in the south-east corner of the site (10.75m O.D.)
Sample: Trench 2
This trench was designed to locate the core of the graveyard and was orientated east-west, measuring 4m long by 0.6m wide by 1.4m in depth. It was positioned 12.9m south of the Civic Offices and just north of the existing grave-slabs. Archaeological deposits were found in situ in this trench.
East end
0 - 0.1m: Topsoil, dark brown cultivated soil
0.1 - 0.12m: Fine sand, dark brown in colour and containing glazed earthenware fragments and plastic in the upper levels.
0.12 - 0.28m: A band of re-deposited light yellow sand with very few inclusions apart from small stones. This may have been laid as a protective layer during the excavations.
0.28 - 0.3m: Dark brown almost black organic layer containing tiny fragments of red brick and plastic.
0.3 - 1m: Dark grey silty clay with brick fragments. This deposit contained mortar fragments, slate, cockle shell, and numerous human bone fragments. This is a burial soil which has been contaminated at the upper levels.
1 - 1.25m: Similar to the above but purer with fewer inclusions and an increasing number of human bones. This was identified as a burial soil. In all, fragments of pelvis, femora, ribs, radius and ulna were found.
1.25m + Similar to above but much blacker in colour. There was a greater possibility of articulated skeletons in this deposit and excavation was halted. This is likely to have been a medieval deposit.

This trench was located within the graveyard locating what are clearly graveyard soils at just 0.3m in depth, although post-medieval in date. At 1m below present ground level, the soil was less disturbed and contained more human remains suggesting articulated skeletons are likely to be not much deeper. All the human bones were carefully placed back in the trench.

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