2000:0341 - SMITHFIELD: Haymarket/14–44 Queen Street/ Thundercut Alley, Dublin

The proposed development of the property on the western side of Smithfield required a detailed archaeological assessment of the site. The area was defined by Smithfield on the east, Haymarket on the south, 14–44 Queen Street on the west and a narrow, post-medieval laneway, Thundercut Alley, to the north. This area measured c. 180m (north–south) by 75m, or 1.35ha.

Standing remains cover portions of the site, including around 60% of the available street frontages. These were the subject of a separate architectural investigation by David Slattery. Nineteen trenches were opened across the available portions of the site. Nine were orientated east–west, and ten north–south, to give a series of profiles across the development block. One property, beside Smithfield fruit market, had been tested previously by Mary McMahon (Excavations 1993, 26, 93E0052).

Two trenches were opened along 43m of the Queen Street frontage, and four were opened along 63m of the Smithfield frontage.

Basements were invariably present at the street frontages, although some had been truncated by more recent structures. In a number of instances there was a reasonable correlation between the buildings indicated on Rocque’s map of 1756 and basements identified in the test-trenches.

A number of features were uncovered at the south-west of the development block, in an area identified to the excavator by Nessa Roche as the location of a late 17th-century glassworks. A quantity of industrial residues, including some vitrified material, was recovered.

The subsoil removed during the original construction of the basements had been dumped at the rear of each property, raising the ground level and preserving some traces of the pre-construction soils across the site. Further investigations of the glassworks and other parts of the site will be required prior to any development of the site.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin