County: Dublin Site name: 3 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018–020534 Licence number: 18E0256
Author: Kim Rice, Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy
Site type: Urban post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715190m, N 734994m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.352602, -6.269748
Monitoring was carried out within the garden of the protected structure at number 3 Henrietta Street, from 14-16 January 2019. The conservation, repairs and alterations to the interior and exterior of the structure did not impact on any archaeological remains. Consequently, the most relevant aspect of the development, from an archaeological perspective, comprised landscaping works within the rear yard. This involved the removal of deposits of modern made-ground in the southern half of the yard, as well as a portion of an embanked mound that abutted the boundary wall with No. 4.
The investigation demonstrated that the made-ground consisted of a mix of modern construction rubble, late twentieth-century household refuse and disturbed, redeposited nineteenth- and twentieth-century garden soils. The made-ground had been backfilled over of a layer of geotextile that protected the underlying in situ deposits, in addition to the lower section of a calp boundary wall. These disturbed deposits derived from remedial conservation works that were undertaken by Dublin City Council from 2008 to 2010.
In contrast, the embankment to the west was composed of in situ stratified soils that dated from the mid-eighteenth to the twentieth century. It ranged between 1.65–1.8m in height above the current level of the northern half of the yard and the adjoining Henrietta Lane. However, the surface of the embankment was the same level above ground as the neighbouring garden of No. 4. It extended for 12m (north-east/south-west) x 5m.
The character and composition of the embankment soils indicated the ground was built-up with layers of redeposited natural, household refuse and building rubble during the mid-eighteenth century. The work was probably carried out as part of the landscaping for the ornamental parterre-type garden that is depicted on John Rocque’s map of Dublin from 1756. The formal garden was probably at a comparable level to the present raised garden in No. 4. The stratigraphy suggested a series of construction and demolition events occurred onsite during the late nineteenth century, which coincided with the conversion of the house to a tenement by Joseph Meade. These included the building of an outhouse toilet at the southern-end of the embankment, which is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1906–9.
Lynwood House, Balinteer Rd., Dublin 18, D16 H9V6
