County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: Augustine Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Alan Hayden, Archaeological Projects Ltd.
Site type: Town defences
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 714326m, N 734226m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.345893, -6.282992
Monitoring of the excavation of foundation trenches was carried out from April 20–28, 1994. The site had been previously assessed and the line of the medieval town wall which runs across the site was located (Excavations 1989, 21-2). Part of the planning permission required that the foundations of the proposed development avoid the town wall. The exact line of the wall had therefore to be determined.
Monitoring of the excavation showed that the wall uncovered in the previous assessment was not the town wall proper but a Georgian wall built on top of the town wall. A Victorian wall was in turn built on top of the Georgian house wall. The previous excavator had interpreted the offset at the base of the Georgian wall where it was built on the centre of the town wall for the plinth of the town wall. The top of the town wall was uncovered at between 2.4m and 2.6m OD. A single trench was excavated against the outer face of the town wall to the level of the top of its projecting footing which occurred at c. 0.4–0.5m OD.
The level of the base of the town wall agrees closely with the level of the base of the ditch excavated at Bridge St. Upper in 1992 (Excavations 1992, 18) and shows that the Liffey originally flowed into the ditch at the west side of the town and that the town wall retained the east side of the ditch over part of its most northerly extent.
15 St Brigid's Rd. Upr., Drumcondra, Dublin 9
