County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 31A–36 Ormond Quay Upper/Charles Street West
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0126
Author: Helen Kehoe
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 715095m, N 734240m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.345852, -6.271446
This assessment, carried out on behalf of Dublin Corporation, was to be included as pre-planning additional information before the development of the site. The area is currently used as a carpark. The site is outside the medieval walled town of Dublin but, by the completion of Brooking's map of 1728, this area north of the Liffey appears to have been well established and was in use as a thriving marketplace since 1682.
Four trenches were opened for assessment purposes. The initial 2m of late building material was extremely loose and tended towards 'shelving', which made the examination of the lower levels quite difficult. The lowest levels in all trenches consisted of natural, orange/brown gravels.
Two pieces of cut timbers and wooden post remains retrieved from the gravels and grey silt respectively appeared to be indiscriminately scattered throughout the gravel only at the junction of Trench A and Trench B. There did not appear to be any new 'break' marks on the timbers. The timbers were only 30mm thick and were radially cut, suggesting a 'planking' function, possibly a pathway. The wooden posts found strewn in the silt appear to be associated with the timber remains. The relatively small radius of the posts suggests a lightweight function. Three post-medieval sherds of North Devon ware (two gravel-tempered and one Sgraffito sherd) were retrieved from the silt/gravel deposits.
Trenches C and D did not produce any material of an archaeological nature.
11 Norseman Place, Stonybatter, Dublin 7
