2019:493 - COOLOCK: Environs of St John the Evangelist Church, Brookville, Dublin

A programme of archaeological monitoring was carried out for DCC during the laying of a replacement water main in September and October 2019. The section of water main ran parallel to the Santry River to the west of St John the Evangelist Church, Coolock, along the northern side of the river. Two shorter sections of trench ran to the north to connect with the existing water main. The ground level along the river side has been built up and landscaped in the recent past and no archaeology was encountered along the western portion of the trenching. Natural was not reached, with the trench being 1m in depth.

A small section of the western side of a large curving ditch was identified to the east, surviving beneath 1.1m of disturbance associated with the existing road. The ditch was orientated approximately north-north-west to south-south-east and was large and steep-sided, being a minimum of 0.55m in depth. Only a small portion of the western side of the ditch was encountered within the trench and the base was not reached.

Sections of curving ditch relating to an early ecclesiastic foundation on the site of the Church of St John the Evangelist have been uncovered previously in two excavations (Delaney 17E0527 and Swan 1990). Only a small portion of the internal side of the ditch and associated bank were uncovered during Swan’s excavations within the south-eastern corner of the church grounds in 1990. Delaney uncovered the northern arc of an oval enclosure during works in advance of a proposed development to the north of the church in 2017 and 2018, consisting of a 40m stretch of the ditch, which measured 1.5m in width and 0.9m in depth.

The two fills identified within the ditch both contained animal bone and charcoal, as recorded in the ditch uncovered by Delaney in 2017 and 2018. It is possible that this ditch forms part of the circular enclosure surrounding the early ecclesiastic site formerly associated with St Brendan of Clonfert. A church predating the existing Church of St John the Evangelist was uncovered by Swan in 1990 as well as a burial to the south-east near the small section of bank and ditch uncovered during those investigation. A holy well dedicated to St Brendan is also present along the southern side of the Santry River across from the ecclesiastic enclosure. A number of artefacts, including a stone cross, a quern stone from a horizontal watermill, two pins dateable to the early medieval period and a lead ingot, were uncovered during the 1990 works. These all point to there being an early ecclesiastic foundation on the site. The arc of ditch uncovered to the north in 2017 and the bank and ditch uncovered to the south-east in 1990 clearly appear to relate to the ecclesiastic enclosure.

The locations of the sections of ditch identified so far do not suggest a circular enclosure and Delaney suggested the enclosure may have been oval in plan based on the arc of the ditch to the north. The section of ditch uncovered during these monitoring works would appear to confirm this and suggest the enclosure was oval, measuring approximately 87m east-south-east/west-north-west by 72m. This projection would take in all sections of ditch uncovered to date, however it is also possible that a second enclosure was present, with the sections uncovered not representing the same enclosure ditch.

Reference
Swan, D.L. 1991 ‘Report on the Archaeological Excavations at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Coolock, Co. Dublin’, Unpublished Report, courtesy of Arch-Tech Ltd.