1995:060 - BALLSBRIDGE: Johnston Mooney & O'Brien Bakery site, Dublin

Phase 1
The 6-acre Johnston Mooney & O'Brien site at Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, is being developed in a three-phase construction project. The site is bordered on the eastern side by the River Dodder and was the site of a mill complex before it was developed as a bakery. The historical background to the site was researched and the site was inspected for the purposes of the Environmental Impact Statement, lodged with the planning submission for the scheme. This contained a description and survey of a culverted millrace/watercourse which runs through the site and outlined the possible archaeological implications for the development of the site.

Additional work and inspection were carried out to fulfil the terms of a planning condition which required pre-construction assessment of the site on the basis of 'at least four trial trenches excavated on the site...'. In the event, the interface between the demolition programme and construction programme did not allow for a full pre-construction assessment as the demolition took place in three phases. Accordingly, a decision was taken to assess the area beneath the first of the three new blocks as a preliminary exercise and to assess the other two areas in turn as they became clear and available for examination. This was done by monitoring the site clearance and excavation works for the basement level as they progressed and recording the cross-sections exposed.

The open, extreme southern portion of the Phase 1 site was inspected for archaeological purposes in December 1994. The profiles exposed in four trenches, two over 10m long, indicated the presence of a silted-up watercourse which was either very wide (i.e. c. 30m+) or had run obliquely though the area tested. The deposits had no archaeological inclusions and no archaeological features were present, i.e. there was no evidence for mills or other early structures in the area tested.

The Phase 1 site clearance and excavation works were monitored and inspected as they progressed and the cross-sections exposed recorded. The recent buildings were constructed on foundations supported by large concrete pads measuring over 2m x 2m x 2m in size. These had to be broken up as the excavation works progressed from east to west across the site. The area covered by the standing buildings was consequently very disturbed.

However, progressive inspections of the site from east to west yielded no evidence for structures earlier than those recently demolished. The culverted millrace was exposed, as surveyed in the EIS, and a cross-section of it was examined in detail. The ground to the west of the surveyed portion of the millrace was so disturbed by the foundations, services and loose rubble fill related to the construction of the recently demolished buildings and the site of a weighbridge that it could not be traced on the western portion of the excavated area.

Phase 2
This area was inspected during site clearance and excavation works. The deposit at the base of the excavation was a uniform coarse gravel and gravelly clay, with the pebbles averaging 6mm in diameter. At the north-east corner the culvert, which was previously surveyed for the purposes of the EIS, was exposed in section. The recorded portion ran parallel to the River Dodder and was over 8m wide.

It was built of regularly coursed, vertical blackstone walls which were 0.8m thick, 1.8m high with an internal footing, 0.4m wide. The channel was divided into two, each 3.6m wide. The bisecting wall was made of concrete at the base with reused red brick at the upper levels. In addition, the roof was strengthened by large iron girders. A series of services were then laid through the culvert. The culvert was cut into a series of interleaving silts and gravels, which appear to have previously formed part of the flood-plain of the river.

By the time excavation was completed, organic silts were found to cross almost the entire southern face of the excavated area for a distance of approximately 30m. It is not clear whether the section exposed represents a watercourse cut obliquely or a large flooded area adjacent to the river. The latter interpretation is suggested.

Phase 3
The Phase 3 (northern) portion of the site was tested in October 1995. It included location of the bakery offices. The issue in this area was to establish whether there were any archaeological remains of Balls Mansion (a 17th-century castle/fortified house) (SMR County Borough Map 9-009-16).

The area inspected revealed that deposits at the base of the excavation were uniform coarse gravels with pebbles. At the western corner of the site, large stone walls represented a phase of activity earlier than the bakery. The presence of red brick in the foundations indicated that these walls were the foundations of post-medieval buildings. These were associated with the culvert, rather than with Balls Mansion, and may represent portions of mill buildings. They were too fragmentary to establish a ground-plan or layout.

The area did not reveal any evidence for early, i.e. medieval, milling activity. The original location of Balls Mansion was not ascertained.

Rath House, Ferndale Rd, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin