2023:817 - St Nicholas Within, Nicholas Street, Dublin 8, Dublin

Archaeological monitoring and subsequent testing were carried out within the footprint of the Church of St Nicholas Within between November 2021 and February 2023. The ruined church site, located at Nicholas Street, Dublin 8, is a Recorded Monument and Protected Structure (RMP DU018-020085, RPS Ref No. 5830, NIAH Reg No.50080534). The site also lies within the Zone of Archaeological Potential for Dublin City (RMP DU018-020). The church is in the guardianship of Dublin City Council (DCC) and the archaeological works were carried out as part of an ongoing conservation project. Works comprised the clear out and stabilisation of the site, the monitoring of trial pits and a later phase comprising targeted test-trenching. The project is being managed by a Conservation Architecture firm. A section 12(3) notification form was submitted to the National Monuments Service regarding these works.

The existing structural remains date to the early eighteenth century, however, the earliest known record of a church at this location dates to the middle of the thirteenth century. Situated within the medieval core of Dublin City, the site is located in the historic ward of St Nicholas Within. The term “Within” refers to within the city walls, when the parish was divided into two parts by the construction of the city wall in the fourteenth century, creating the parishes of St Nicholas Within and St Nicholas Without.

The archaeological works at the site were carried out in two separate phases. Phase 1 (November 2021–December 2022) consisted of the monitoring of vegetation removal, debris clearance, loose masonry stabilisation works, the re-opening of a blocked ope in the façade, and the hand excavation of three trial areas (Areas 1–3). The results of the monitoring of these three trial areas informed the next phase of works, Phase 2 (January 2023–February 2023), which consisted of a programme of targeted test-trenching comprising the extension of one previously investigated area (Area 3) and the investigation of two new areas (Areas 4–5) within the church footprint.

Historical mapping and historic sources recorded “vaults” or a crypt at the site. Clearance of decaying vegetation from within the site revealed an uneven and partially collapsed granite flagstone floor, which appeared to be caused by cavities. The archaeological works were carried out in tandem with civil and structural investigations to enhance the understanding of the below-surface remains and possible location of the recorded crypt. The subsurface works, whilst limited in scale, revealed the presence of a vault with corridors and chambers, extensive human remains (both articulated and disarticulated), remnants of eighteenth-/nineteenth-century coffin furniture and religious artefacts, the potential remains of an early structure, and extensive disturbance/reconditioning of the flagstone surface by DCC in the 1970s. Structural information on the floor surface of the vault and the foundations of the church was also ascertained.

Disarticulated bone was recovered from Areas 3-5. A total of 974 fragments of human bone were recovered from the trenches. The remains represented a total of at least 20 individuals; including four adult females, two of which were within the young to middle adult age categories, two males, and eight adults of indeterminate biological sex, one of which was a young adult and one a middle to mature adult. Identified pathology included degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis, Schmorl’s Nodes, DISH, dental disease including caries, dental calculus and antemortem tooth loss. Trauma was also identified within the assemblage and included a healed fracture and possible sharp-force trauma. The skeletal remains are to be retained as part of the National Collection.

The works afforded an insight into eighteenth- /nineteenth-century urban burial customs at the site and served to inform both the extent of archaeological risk within the site and potential mitigation measures required for future investigative/stabilisation works, specifically for any proposed stabilisation options (i.e. underpinning or micro-piling) for the subsiding north wall of the church.