2000:0280 - DUBLIN: 24–27 Ormond Quay Lower, Dublin

The redevelopment of 24–27 Lower Ormond Quay by Wallace Ltd was subject to a programme of archaeological monitoring between June 2000 and January 2001. The site had formerly been occupied by a series of 18th-century houses, which fronted onto the quay. To the rear of the houses the site had been occupied by warehouses, one of which had a double-vaulted cellar in its basement. The site measured approximately 55m north–south x 26m and extended from Ormond Quay through the block incorporating property Nos 20–21 fronting Strand Street Great.

Speed’s map of Dublin from 1610 shows Ormond Quay to have been occupied by a series of inlets and channels including the River Bradogue, which joined the Liffey from Cabra. Sir Humphrey Jervis, once lord mayor of Dublin, began to develop Ormond Quay in 1677. The quay was called after the duke of Ormonde, who persuaded Jervis that his riverside development should include a quay wall. Jervis built a market at Ormond Square and instituted a grid street layout off the Quay, which included Capel Street, Mary Street and Jervis Street. Ormond Quay represents the first stone quay on the Liffey, upon which all subsequent quays erected were modelled.

While the development site at 24–27 Ormond Quay Lower is not listed in the Sites and Monuments Register for Dublin City, recent archaeological assessment/monitoring of redevelopment along the Quay has produced archaeological stratigraphy. During 1996, test excavation undertaken by Margaret Gowen at the adjacent site of 22–23 Ormond Quay (Excavations 1996, 30, 96E0272) revealed 17th-century reclamation deposits overlying natural deposits of gravel and estuarine silt. The reclamation deposits revealed North Devon gravel-tempered ware, Sgraffito ware and early clay pipes. At No. 40 Ormond Quay Helen Kehoe recovered a cache of mostly disarticulated human remains, representing at least twelve individuals, from a redbrick cellar (Excavations 1997, 50, 97E0013). The remains most probably represented 18th-century cadavers.

Groundworks at 24–27 Ormond Quay involved the excavation of underpinning pits to secure a north–south-running boundary wall, formerly the western wall of a warehouse; the excavation of pits for piles; and finally bulk excavation of the upper 1m of deposits across the entire site. Monitoring of this excavation identified a similar sequence of deposits across the site.

The rear of the western third of the site was occupied by a double-vaulted cellar. Excavation was through relatively recent demolition rubble, two brick cellar floors and an underlying 17th-century reclamation horizon composed of charcoal, ash, mixed soils, domestic waste and building rubble—mostly in the form of red bricks and mortar.

Below the cellars the reclamation horizon was 0.2–0.3m in depth. Elsewhere on the site it had a greater depth (up to 0.4–0.7m) and was found to contain lenses of gravel, shale and sticky clays, as well as mortar and plaster. The reclamation horizon overlay a gravelly, yellow, estuarine silt, which in turn covered a series of river gravel deposits that varied in colour from orange to grey.

Finds retrieved from the reclamation horizon included clay pipes, sherds of Sgraffito ware and North Devon gravel-tempered ware. Such 17th-century material represents the earliest artefacts identified on site. Other finds included 19th-century ceramic marmalade and paint jars.

Retrieved from the river gravels at a depth of 1.5–3m in the south-eastern part of the site was a collection of 26 disarticulated human bones. A further three fragments were recovered from within the 17th/18th-century reclamation horizon. The bone was examined by Laureen Buckley, who identified mostly long bones; there were no skulls or teeth present. From examination of the bones it was estimated that a minimum of five adults and four juveniles were present. The adults consisted of three males, one female and at least one other young adult. From the length of the long bones it was estimated that one of the juveniles was aged between 2 and 5 years, two were aged 5–10 years and the other was aged 10–16 years.

There was no dating evidence accompanying the bones, which clearly pre-date the 17th-century reclamation of the site, but it is not yet known by how much. Neither is the full extent of the deposit of human bone in the river gravels known. It is possible that more bone is present. However, as bulk excavation of the site was only to a depth of 1–1.5m and did not involve further disturbance of river gravels, an archaeological investigation of the river gravels was not conducted.

Possible origins for the bone include the nearby medieval church and graveyard of St Michan’s and/or the late 17th-century hospital and free school established to the north of the site at King’s Hospital.

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