County: Dublin Site name: UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN BOAT CLUB, Inchicore North, Islandbridge
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0271
Author: Ian W. Doyle, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 712214m, N 734172m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.345860, -6.314708
The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Boat Club is located on the south bank of the River Liffey at Islandbridge. The Irish National War Memorial Garden is to the south-west of the site. The ground slopes from the south to the north, i.e. from the crest of the Kilmainham ridge at Con Colbert Road to the River Liffey. The university intends to construct an extension to the existing structure.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Viking Age material was recovered from the Kilmainham/ Islandbridge area. Some of these artefacts derived from gravel pit excavation in ground between the River Liffey and Con Colbert Road. Further remains were discovered in the 1930s when the War Memorial Park was laid out. Additional material is described as having derived from ‘The King’s Ford’, which was ‘just above the weir at Dublin University Boat Club, Islandbridge’, Dublin (O’Brien 1998, 216). The National Museum purchased these finds in 1937.
Two test-trenches were excavated in October 2000 on the line of the southern and western ranges of the proposed extension. Both trenches revealed sod and topsoil overlying natural boulder clay.
Reference
O’Brien, E. 1998 The location and context of Viking burials at Kilmainham and Islandbridge, Dublin. In H.B. Clarke, M. Ní Mhaonaigh and R. Ó Floinn (eds), Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age. Dublin.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
