1998:206 - KILMAINHAM: Bow Bridge House, Bow Lane West, Dublin

A pre-development archaeological assessment was carried out during 12 and 13 January 1998 in advance of a proposed apartment development close to the west bank of the River Camac at Bow Bridge House, Bow Lane West, Kilmainham, Dublin.

The Bow Bridge crosses the river Camac at Kilmainham. It appears to have been erected on the edge of Dublin City sometime after AD 1200. The Downe Survey of 1655–6 shows ‘Bowe Bridge’ on the ‘Cammock River’. It is also illustrated on Taylor’s fire survey of Kilmainham in 1671 and on subsequent maps.

The site had been cleared to modern ground level before the assessment took place. Six trenches were excavated across the site to undisturbed estuarine levels, roughly between 2.5m and 3.5m below modern ground level, but significant archaeological deposits were not encountered. In fact nothing was observed during the investigation to suggest that there was any significant archaeological activity on this site before the post-medieval era. Thick deposits of organic clay found to be lying directly over the undisturbed estuarine silts within the excavated trenches were clearly the result of river action over a considerable period of time.

After the assessment was completed, and on the recommendation of the City Archaeologist, provisional permission was given for the development to commence.

Archaeologists will have to look elsewhere in the Kilmainham area for the elusive Viking longphort.