2024:359 - 39 Castle Park Road, Bullock, Dalkey, Dublin

Archaeological monitoring of a housing development took place in September and October 2024.  It entailed topsoil stripping to the surface of the natural subsoil in tandem with mechanical excavation of foundation trenches within the footprint of all dwellings on the site. One location in the east corner of the site achieved greater depths, in which the underlying bedrock was extensively excavated to c. 3m to create a basement for the dwelling. The overlying topsoil varied in depth to between 0.02m and 0.15m, beneath which was a pale yellow compact sand with granite inclusions. Excavation of the foundation trenches also revealed the same consistency of subsoil for the remainder of the exposed profile. For the most part the foundation trenches were between 0.6m and 1.8m in width and varied in depth from 1m to 1.8m. These dimensions increased with the dwellings at the northern sector of the site, in which the trench widths were from 1m to 2m, while their depths were between 0.9m to 1.3m. The stratigraphy at this location consisted of 0.1m to 0.15m topsoil onto pale yellow compact sticky clay with granite inclusions for remainder (boulder clay). There were basal services from the previous dwelling and the upper strata also retained mixed garden soil and building debris (previous dwelling).

No archaeological features, deposits, structures or anomalies were evident on the site. In terms of artefactual heritage, 19^th to 20^th-century glass, pottery and drainage pipe were identified and nothing of an earlier period was evident.