County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 22–23 Ormonde Quay
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0272
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 715166m, N 734251m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.345935, -6.270377
Archaeological test excavation was undertaken at 22–23 Ormonde Quay on 9 October 1996 to fulfil requirements for the planning application. The site is located on the north side of the Liffey opposite Wood Quay and to the south-east of the medieval suburb of Oxmantown.
The site appears to have been located on the river shoreline up to the seventeenth century, at which time reclamation commenced. The housing built behind the new quay front is likely to date to the early eighteenth century on the basis of the findings. The work on site involved the mechanical excavation of four test-pits. The first pit was located in the south-west corner of the site close to the street front of No. 23 Ormonde Quay. The second pit was located in the middle of the western side of the site. The third pit was located in the middle of the eastern side of the site, while the fourth pit was located in the north-east corner at the rear of the site.
The natural deposits of gravel and estuarine mud encountered at the base of the test-pits indicate the area as slobland, as depicted on Speed’s map of Dublin in the seventeenth century. The greater depth of gravel found in pit 2 than in pit 1 suggests the presence of inlets or channels running parallel to the main Liffey course, also depicted by Speed.
The earliest archaeological activity on the site is seventeenth-century land reclamation, dated on the basis of finds recovered from the deposits, including North Devon gravel-tempered ware, sgraffito and early clay pipes. No trace of the early quay wall was encountered in the test-pits but it is likely to occur under the present quayfront road. The lowest, early dumped deposits were up to 1m thick, and the upper layers, including ash and domestic debris, were interpreted as occasional sporadic dumping in the late seventeenth century. The last major phase of activity was the construction of houses fronting onto the quays and onto the lane at the rear of the site (in the eighteenth century). This involved the removal of seventeenth-century material, when basements were constructed at both the front and rear.
The material revealed is not archaeologically sensitive though it has illustrated the development of the riverfront in the area. There were no implications for the development as piled foundations were proposed and no intrusive excavation was planned.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd. Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
