2019:543 - Metrolink Area 3 – Griffith Park Station, Bankfarm, Dublin

A programme of Advance Targeted Archaeological Test Excavations was carried out at MetroLink Licence Area 3: Griffith Park Station, Bankfarm, Dublin 9 in December 2019. The site is located within the grounds of the Home Farm Football Club, in the townland of Bankfarm and is within the curtilage of Whitehall College (now Coláiste Caomhain, RPS 7746). The work was carried out on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland as part of the MetroLink programme of archaeological investigations, the results of which informed the preparation of an Environmental Impact Assessment Report for the preferred route.

The site did not contain any monuments listed within the Record of Monuments and Places, but in June 2008 human remains were recovered from the site during construction works for dressing rooms and a perimeter fence around the pitch (NMI file IA/182/2008).The remains included a fragmented skull and parts of the upper torso of a single individual suggesting the presence of an in situ burial. The site is located less than 300m south-east of the ecclesiastical complex of St Mobhi (DU018-005008-) and 147m east of an Anglo-Norman motte (DU018-005009-). Prior to the archaeological testing a geophysical and ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey was undertaken by Earthsound Ltd. (Licence 18R0196; Gimson & Garner 2019) which indicated a number of anomalies suggestive of possible grave cuts and linear and curving ditch features. The test excavation strategy was designed to target these anomalies to determine if they represented archaeological features.
The site was assessed between 2 and 10 December 2019. A total of 24 test trenches were excavated across the footprint of the site using a 3-tonne tracked excavator fitted with a 1.8m wide bucket. A total of 131m of linear trench were excavated. In addition to the targeted testing of the geophysical anomalies, extra test trenches were excavated in the vicinity of the southern goalposts/fence line, where the human remains were found in 2008. No human remains were identified in any of the excavated test trenches suggesting perhaps that the previously discovered remains were an isolated find. The test excavations did however confirm the presence of a number of slightly curving ditches/linear features (C10, C12, C17, C26, C35 and C41), most of which were consistent with anomalies identified in the geophysical survey. Most of the ditches contained animal bone within the fill but produced no dateable finds. Samples taken from a number of the fills, however, have produced sufficient charcoal for radiocarbon dating. The ditch C10 along the south end of the site did contain quantities of barbed wire and is on the same alignment as a field boundary shown on the Ordnance Survey 6 inch map of 1844. This ditch also runs along the top of the cutting for the original entrance laneway to Whitehall College as shown on the OS 25 inch map of 1911. The remaining ditches are of unknown date. Ditch C17 in the south-east corner of the site appears to curve more significantly than the others on the geophysical survey and may represent part of a potential circular enclosure of approximately 30m diameter. The remaining ditches identified in the testing and the geophysical survey do not appear to form any definitive pattern. Four small pits or spreads (C28, C30, C32, C34) of unknown date were also identified clustered together in Test Trench 12. A square shaped fragment of iron and some metallurgical waste fragments were recovered from the fill of C32 but appear relatively modern in date.

A number of environmental samples from the various ditch fills produced charcoal; two samples will be submitted for radiocarbon dating. In agreement with the National Museum of Ireland a radiocarbon date will also be obtained for the human remains recovered in 2008.

Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit, Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth