County: Dublin Site name: O'Devaney Gardens, Dublin 7
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 22E0393
Author: AISLING collins
Site type: Urban, post-medieval
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 713587m, N 734910m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.352194, -6.293844
Archaeological monitoring was carried out for enabling works for the proposed residential development at the site of the former O’Devaney Gardens, Dublin 7. The monitoring was required as part of a planning requirement. The project manager is Ian Fennell from Bartra ODG Limited, the enabling contractors were HML.
The archaeological monitoring of the site was carried out over a 13-month period from February 2023 to end of March 2024. The monitoring was done in a phased manner. The site was divided into different areas.
Area A: The northern area of the site.
Area B: Area to the south of the site and west of Area C.
Area C: Strip of land at St Bricin’s Hospital.
Area D: Completed DCC residential houses and apartments.
Area E: Compound area for HML enabling works and former soccer pitch.
The initial stripping across the site was for a depth of 0.5m below present ground level (PGL).
There was a lot of ground disturbance across the whole site that is associated with the construction of the residential apartment blocks called O’Devaney Gardens.
In Area C, the former St Bricin’s garden had a total of 41 features identified which date to between the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Most of the features were linear ditches, cultivation furrows or modern drains. A total of 10 finds were retrieved including medical equipment (mortar and pestle), clay pipe bowls, tin medical pans and glass vials and pottery sherds that are likely dumped material from St Bricin’s Hospital.
In Area A, a total of 14 features were recorded. Two pond areas were excavated one of which was identified in an early OS map. Post-medieval pottery was recorded from both the pond areas that was likely dumped from the nearby residential houses. The two pond areas were fully excavated. A total of seventy-two finds were retrieved dating from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The earliest finds were sherds of 17th-century pottery and some clay pipes; most of the material was household ceramics, glass and clay pipes. A bullet cartridge and a copper alloy button were also found.
There were some traces of 18th-century field boundaries and similar activity also found in Area A.
Nothing prehistoric or medieval was identified.
Archaeological monitoring was completed at the end of March 2024 and post-excavation work is ongoing.
ACAS, 45 Richmond Park, Monkstown, Co. Dublin
