County: Dublin Site name: 3 Nicholas Place, Dublin 8
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU18-020001 Licence number: 15E0585
Author: Matthew Seaver
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715010m, N 733777m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.341709, -6.272892
Monitoring of the excavation of two piling test pits took place within a terraced red brick house built by the Dublin Artisan Dwellings company in the 1880s. The house overlies the medieval town ditch and the site would have been outside the town wall running from Newgate to St Patrick's Gate. The ditch had been excavated close to the site of St Patrick's Gate to the east of the development site and was shown to be 20m in width and 3.3m in depth (Walsh and Hayden 1997). A previous assessment at No. 9 Nicholas Place, Christchurch, revealed rubble deposits, 0.4-0.6m in depth and no features of archaeological significance but was further west of the town wall itself (Kehoe 2002).
Two engineering test pits were dug within the house and one in the small yard to the rear. Trench 1 in the north-west interior measured 1m by 1m and revealed soft mid brown silt with frequent red brick and slate. Trench 2 was in the north-east of the original structure exposed a sewer pipe. Trench 3 was 1.5m by 1m and was within the small yard. It was dug to 0.7m in depth and exposed silty soft sand with red brick fragments and tiles.
Due to the presence of the ditch deposits underneath, the site engineer recommended the use of miniature piles to underpin the walls in advance of construction. It was recommended that a full log be retained of the piling process and that the internal ground reduction within the building would be fully monitored.
References:
Kehoe, H 2002:0572 - 9 St Nicholas Place, Dublin, Dublin
Walsh, C and Hayden, A 1997 'Archaeological Excavations at Patrick, Nicholas and Winetavern Streets, Dublin', Dublin Corporation.
3 Millers Square, Lusk Village, Co. Dublin
