1976:048 - DUBLIN CITY: Wood Quay, Dublin

The National Museum’s excavations at Wood Quay have been concerned with the reclaimed area along the medieval waterfront outside part of the old city wall, Mr. Breandan O Ríordain of the Museum having previously investigated an area of the site along Winetavern Street. The area is owned by Dublin Corporation and will be the site of their proposed Civic Office complex.

It appears that the river Liffey was much more broad and shallow in the 12th century than it is now. This made Dublin inaccessible to ships, which had to anchor at a distance from the city. Close approach was made increasingly difficult by the gradual accumulation of silt and the absence of adequate dredging facilities. The excavations at Wood Quay have shown that land was advanced (i.e. reclaimed) to meet the ships since they could not approach the land. The need for improved quay/port facilities was all the greater since the early 13th century saw the recently settled Normans actively engaged in a flourishing European trade which had given rise to increased ship sizes.

The 1192 Dublin Charter admitted that citizens were free to “improve themselves in making buildings. . . upon the water (i.e. river),” implying that land was being reclaimed from the river at that date. The earliest advance on the Liffey at Wood Quay seems to have been made c.1200 when a line of post-and-wattle about 1m high and 35m long was erected on the river gravel roughly parallel to and 25m N of the city wall. This line was intended to provide a stable face or retaining wall for the made or reclaimed ground which was deposited in the river to increase the draught of water. Six lines of similar nature divided the interval between the outer margin and the wall into a series of rectangles; these appear to represent property boundaries though they may also have facilitated systematic reclamation.

This rather flimsy arrangement appears to have been short-lived (it may have been intended as a temporary measure) and was soon superceded by a stout wooden framework or revetment a couple of metres further out. This was built of oak uprights behind which were placed horizontal planks set on edge and held in place by the pressure of backfill and town refuse which were heaped behind. The uprights were mortised into foot-beams and were braced on the waterside by raking-struts which were mortised and tenoned into soleplates fixed at right angles to the foot-beams.

While this revetment or quay front appears mainly to have been intended to deepen the water, it also enabled the newly-made ground between itself and the wall to be utilised thereby facilitating the growth of the city. Soon after the new ground was formed by capitalising on the existing estuarine mud and gravels as well as by tipping gravel and town refuse on the site, sheets of wickerwork were laid on it as a foundation for cobbled pathways and later, towards the end of the 13th century, large foot-beams in rectangular patterns were placed on it. These possibly represent the remains of a warehouse complex and their positions echo those of the early lines of post and wattle underneath which may indicate a continuity of property boundaries.

Not long after the erection of the first revetment in the first decade of the 13th century, it seems to have been decided to push further into the river. This was done by means of another framework built about 20m farther out. This revetment was only about 20m long, in contrast with the first of which, upwards of 60m, have been excavated. It was made of disused ships’ timbers, some still nailed together, which were set on edge on foot-beams and braced by raking-struts on the waterside. This smaller revetment was linked to the first by means of a fence which was protected from (tides?) by a post-and-wattle breakwater. The “boat” revetment collapsed probably due to the contraction of the ships timbers incorporated in it, and was superseded by a third revetment not far from the present Wood Quay. The need for deeper draught appears to have persisted into the 14th century even after the erection of a stone quay wall just N. of the third wooden revetment as a 1358 petition from the merchants of Dublin to Edward III- “From want of deep water in the harbour of that city, there never has been anchorage for large ships from abroad . . .” all such ships having to anchor at Dalkey from where barges and boats transhipped their cargoes to Dublin. Despite the apparent failure of the large wooden revetments at Wood Quay they enabled a large area to be reclaimed from the river in the 13th century.

Drains, first of wood and later of stone, were another major structural feature of the site. Some of them were built of re-used ships’ timbers and all ran roughly NS at right angles to the city wall and the revetments. They appear to issue from cesspools outside the wall. The longest measured upwards of 40m in length and averaged 1.5m wide by 1.75m high; it was built in six stages having uprights, soleplates and head plates as well as sheeting along the sides which was held in place by the pressure of dumped material. The top appears to have been used, for a time at least, as a footpath. Two of the wooden drains were replaced in later Medieval times by stone drains which appear to have continued in use until about the middle of the 18th century.

The site has yielded a considerable number of ships’ timbers to which reference has already been made in the context of a revetment and wooden drain where clenched planking formed part of the protective sheeting. Frames, stems, a keel, a beam-knee, bulk-head, and a mast-step have also been discovered as well as two large “Y”-shaped timbers which may have been mast-crutches or mykes.

Pottery is the most common artifact excavated, local and imported wares being represented among the thousands of sherds. More than half the total appears to be of Dublin manufacture. Most of the imports are comprised of Bristol (especially Ham Green), Gloucester and West of England wares. Apart from storage-jars, cooking pots, tripod-pitchers, jugs and pot lids the site has also yielded floor and roof tiles, chimney-finials, curfews, candlesticks, aquamaniles, puzzle-jugs, mortars and a piggy-bank (with a 13th century coin still inside).

Glazed jugs mainly from the Saintonge area near Bordeaux and from N.W. France comprise more than a tenth of the total. Less numerous are the more exotic SW French and Rouen polychromes while painted French and Mediterranean wares and Rhenish skillets are even rarer. So far, only a couple of sherds (of archaic majolica) can be ascribed to Italy.

The small finds include portions of woollen and linen fabrics, dress pins, decorated leather knife sheaths, boots and shoes; bronze tweezers and combs of wood and antler. Stone objects include quernstones, mortars, moulds, bowls and lamps; there are also wooden bowls and stave-built vessels. Many iron knives were found, some handled, and shears, barrel locks and keys, and tools such as hammers, axes and drill bits. There are also horseshoes and spurs, dice and gaming pieces, and a fine series of coins, bracteates, and counters.

Finally, a pewter Pilgrim’s flask or ampulla was found, in the shape of a ship, bearing on one side a half-length figure of St. Thomas of Canterbury and on the other the scene of his martyrdom.