County: Dublin Site name: The Mercantile Hotel, Dame Street, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 21E0343
Author: Paul Duffy
Site type: Brick cistern
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 715600m, N 734044m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.343978, -6.263939
The development area has been occupied by existing buildings since the end of the 18th century and a basement level occupies the entire footprint of the hotel. Ground works monitored included the excavation of forty-five pile caps. Monitoring of the excavation of these pile caps revealed a uniform stratigraphy across the site comprising of a concrete slab overlying modern demolition rubble over natural boulder clay.
There was one feature of archaeological significance, a red-brick cistern of likely late 17th- or 18th-century date, noted underneath one of the basement concrete slabs. This feature was covered in plastic and retained in situ.
c/o IAC Archaeology, Unit G1 Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
