County: Dublin Site name: The Crescent, Donnybrook
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018-060009 Licence number: 17E0224
Author: Faith Bailey & Paul Duffy, IAC Ltd
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 717467m, N 731545m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.321120, -6.236841
Testing was carried out at The Crescent, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 as part of a pre-planning assessment. It follows an earlier assessment carried out by Faith Bailey and Brenda Fuller of IAC Ltd in July 2016. The desktop assessment initially concluded that the close proximity to a possible early medieval ecclesiastical enclosure (DU018-060009) lends archaeological potential to the proposed development area, despite the development it has seen in the past. Also, its function as part of the Magdalen Laundries has made it sensitive due to the potential for burials in the area.
Nineteen archaeological test trenches were excavated in two areas of the site, targeting anomalies identified during a geophysical survey conducted by Earthsound Geophysics Ltd in May 2017 (Licence 17E0224). Despite the identified archaeological potential of the site, no evidence for burial activity, or other archaeological features, was recorded during the course of testing.
In all excavated trenches, the natural subsoil was encountered directly beneath modern surfaces/construction layers. It appears that the ground surface has been scarped and reduced across the site during construction works dating to the later 20th century. It must be concluded therefore that the GPR anomalies were the result of a compacted layer of hardcore identified beneath the modern surfaces across the tested areas. Some variations within the natural subsoil, such as the pocket of fine sand noted within Trench 16, may also account for some of the anomalies.
IAC Ltd, Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
