1997:103 - DUBLIN: Augustine Street/Oliver Bond Street, Dublin

Archaeological assessment of a development site at the former distillery at the junction of Oliver Bond Street and Augustine Street, Dublin 2, was undertaken on 26 February 1997. Three long trenches were excavated by mechanical excavator to the top of archaeological deposits. In two locations, the deposits were excavated by machine to determine more fully their nature and depth.

The site lies outside the town walls of Dublin, on the north-west corner of the town’s medieval defences. Previous excavation/assessment in this area has accurately located the town wall at Augustine Street (A. Hayden, Excavations 1992, 18). Excavation of part of the town fosse further south at Bridge Street estimates the width of the fosse in this area at 22m (Hayden, op. cit.). A berm, c. 5m in width, exists outside the town wall at that site.

Trenches dug to locate the wall on the north side of Ormond’s Gate suggest, however, that there may not be a berm outside the wall in this area. The ditch, moreover, may not continue northwards for the full length of the development site.

The top of the town wall at Augustine Street occurs at a level of 5.2m OD PB. A projecting footing, presumably at the base of the wall, was exposed at a level of c. 2.7m OD PB. This is likely to be footed on subsoil.

Further north, at the north-west corner of the town, there is no ditch outside the wall, and the Liffey/tidal encroachment has been found in the town ditch at Bridge Street to a maximum level of c. 7m OD (information from Alan Hayden).

A 15th-century watercourse, the Glib Water, which was an overflow from the city water supply, flows through the development site. Watercourses associated with the medieval Mullinahack mills (location unknown) flow northwards to feed into the Liffey in the vicinity of the site.

Medieval silts occur over the entire southern end of the site. At the eastern end these are suggestive of a ditch, while those at the western end are indicative of low-grade dumping in the medieval period.

There is some evidence for the Glib Water. A red-bricked culvert may be the latest build of this watercourse. Some slight timbers which project from beneath one of the culvert walls may be the remnants of timber revetments along the water channel.

There is scant evidence for the Mullinahack mills: a limestone-walled channel may be a tail-race from the mills. There was no evidence for mill buildings in any of the trenches.