County: Dublin Site name: Ballygall Road West, Finglas, Dublin 11
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 19E0685
Author: Thaddeus Breen, Shanarc Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Urban, 17th-19th century
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 713271m, N 738909m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.388184, -6.297156
Archaeological excavations were carried out on a 0.2 hectare development site fronting Ballygall Road West in Finglas, Dublin 11, during November 2019. The site was formerly occupied by a 19th-century Presbytery or Parochial House associated with St. Canice's Roman Catholic Church. Monitoring commenced on 18 November 2019. During monitoring structural remains were exposed; the remains were then excavated.
Excavated remains mostly related to the former Presbytery or Parochial House, and included a well, a range of outbuildings, garden features, drains and sewers. Parts of the foundations of the parish hall were also found, representing the earliest features found on the site, the hall originating as a probably later 18th-century, certainly early 19th-century church building, known as the 'Barn Church.' The remains found include stone walls probably representing the north-eastern end of the hall, and concrete structural elements representing later construction work.
Many of the small finds recovered – notably pottery and clay-pipes – date from the 17th and 18th century, a period when the development site functioned as rear gardens in Finglas village or as farmland. The finds in their entirety range in date from the 17th through to the 20th century, with the exception of one late medieval residual find, part of a copper alloy buckle.
Unit 39a, Hebron Business park, Hebron Road, Kilkenny
