County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: St. Patrick's St.
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93EO173
Author: Eoin Halpin, A.D.S. Ltd.
Site type: Town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 715782m, N 736258m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.363834, -6.260382
The area of the proposed development is bounded to the east by St Patrick's St., to the west by Francis St. and to the south by Dean St. In all three 14m x 6m areas were excavated, the first running perpendicular to Dean St. and the second two, fronting out on to St Patrick's St. From the series of excavations carried out by Walsh in 1990 (Excavations 1990, 28–9) and from documentary research by others, it has been shown that the course of the river Poddle ran along the line of Dean St. before turning north along the west side of St Patrick's St.
The preliminary results from the present series of excavations, which were funded by South Dublin Construction and carried out over a five-week period in November and December 1993, suggested that the west bank of the river Poddle was largely used as an industrial area, with tanning forming the major industry. It appears that, at the southern end of the site, the tanning was associated with the yardages to the rear of the houses along Francis St. and the houses fronting out on to St Patrick's St. were, in fact, quite a late development. Towards the northern end the area appears to have been divided up into house plots from a relatively early stage.
As might be expected with the close proximity of the course of the river Poddle, the natural undisturbed boulder clay sloped upwards from south to north in the Dean St. cutting and from east to west in the southern of the two St Patrick's St. cuttings. Later housing and factory developments in the area scarped back into this slope effectively disturbing much of the archaeological levels, particularly towards the northern end of the development.
Powerhouse, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4
