2017:819 - St James' (former) church and graveyard, James Street, Dublin 8, Dublin

The site is at St James' Church and graveyard, Dublin 8. The church is being restored and reconfigured for use as a whiskey distillery and visitor centre. It is within the Zone of Archaeological Constraint for DU018-020346 (Church and Graveyard) and DU018-020 (Dublin City), which are subject to statutory protection under Section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994.
There are records of a 12th-century medieval church at St James prior to the 1707 and current 1860 church.
Over 200 previously unknown burials were excavated, which date from the medieval period up to the 18th century. A high percentage of finds date to the 17th and 18th centuries but medieval archaeology is also present. A small section of a possible ditch or water course with pottery dating to the 12th-14th century was found on the north side of the church.
A section of an east-west ditch measuring 5m wide and 1.2m deep x 8m long and 1.1m below present ground level was found running parallel to the present-day James Street – this contained 12-14th-century pottery. The finds from the upper surfaces dated to early 17th century. The ditch had a low clay bank with post-holes, perhaps associated with a post and wattle fence from the original medieval road into Dublin. There was also part of a mettled surface lying at a depth of 0.8m below present road level which may be part of the medieval road.

1,444 sherds of pottery, of which 522 (36%) are medieval in date, were recovered.

A total of 660 small finds were found during the excavations. These consisted of bone, metal (iron, copper alloy, silver and gold), glass, shell, stone and textile objects. By far the largest quantity was associated with the practice of burial: 435 coffin furniture fragments, coffin studs, shroud pins and nails, as well as 145 fragments of bottle, table and window glass. There was a large array of dress accessories, personal items, domestic objects and remnants of construction and repair during the church’s long history – mainly roof slates, structural iron and copper alloy.

Only four items could be dated to the medieval or late medieval period. These included a 13th-14th-century fragment of grisaille window glass from the original medieval church building, a possible 12th–14th-century bone tuning peg from a small stringed instrument like a fiddle or lute, a 12th-15th-century silver stirrup ring and a 16th-century copper alloy jetton from Nuremberg, Germany.

ACAS 45 Richmond Park, Monkstown, Co. Dublin