2023:851 - Merville Place, Finglas Road, Tolka, Dublin 11, Dublin

The brownfield site was once the former Premier Dairies (Merville Dairy) site in the latter part of the twentieth century. Prior to this, cartographic evidence shows that it was the location of a quarry in the nineteenth century. Eleven test trenches were excavated and revealed the site to have been significantly altered in the recent past. No finds, soils or features of archaeological potential were identified during the testing of this brownfield site. The testing confirmed that nineteenth-century quarrying activity had extensively disturbed the site. In two trenches the cut faces of the quarry bed were encountered. The site’s profile was generally consistent in the trenches opened, comprising deep deposits of introduced soils, which suggest the deliberate infilling of the site to reclaim and build up the quarry pit. It is likely that the area was reclaimed in the twentieth century to facilitate the development of a now-demolished Merville Dairy.