County: Dublin Site name: RIVER LIFFEY AT BLACKHALL PLACE, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0733, 00D059, 00R067
Author: Niall Brady, for Archaeological Diving Company Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 714352m, N 734313m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.346668, -6.282571
Five investigation cuttings were undertaken in the River Liffey on the site for the new bridge proposed at Blackhall Place, Dublin. The site lies between Usher’s Island on the south quay and Ellis Quay on the north. A cutting was opened at each of the four abutment locations and mid-channel, where supports for a temporary works platform will be located. The work was carried out under water using a suction dredge to assist in the removal of silts. The work was also carried out in the semi-dry at low water where part of the site is exposed during spring tides.
Several objects of archaeological interest were recovered ranging in date from the medieval period to the present and including leather fragments, an antler clothes toggle, burned bone, potsherds, and the corroded remains of a service revolver.
No structures of archaeological interest were observed in the cuttings, but the fragmentary remains of two cobbled surfaces were recorded off the south bank. These are probably the remains of 18th-century slipways and may be the slipways William Usher was granted permission to construct in 1705.
The location is of interest as an area of Dublin City’s archaeological heritage that has tended to be neglected. Located adjacent to the inlet that Rocque’s city map labelled ‘Gravel Walk Slip’ in 1756, the site and the slipways off the south bank would have served as a natural wharf area for materials transported across the river to and from the ‘Slip’. Further archaeological work is planned.
2 Vale Terrace, Lower Dargle Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
