County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: Capel Street/Jervis Street/Abbey Street/Strand Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0189
Author: Claire Walsh, Archaeological Projects Ltd.
Site type: Town
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 715389m, N 734374m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.346991, -6.266985
The two sites that are the subject of this report occur within the same block, bounded by Upper Abbey Street, Capel Street, Strand Street and Jervis Street, and are located close to Ormond Quay on the north side of the River Liffey. Cellars backfilled with modern material occurred to a uniform depth of 3–3.1m below modern street level in all the trenches. The foundations of some of the walls of the buildings which formerly stood on the site descended to deeper levels.
Between the base of the cellars and the underlying subsoil, layers of grey/black silt with a medium organic content occurred. The silts had a maximum overall depth of 3.6m. They contained twigs and small wood-chippings, as well as fragments of butchered animal bones and marine shell, later 17th- and early 18th-century pottery, and early 18th-century clay pipes and red bricks. These finds occurred right to the base of all the silt layers. No medieval material was recovered.
The trenches excavated on both sites produced no material that can be dated to earlier than the 17th century. All the deposits pre-dating cellars consisted of river silts and refuse cast into them.
The findings are consistent with the area in question having been part of the River Liffey until its redevelopment in the later 17th century.
Editor's note: This excavation, though carried out in 1996, was not reported on in time for inclusion in the bulletin of that year.
25a Eaton Square, Terenure, Dublin 6W
