County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: River Liffey at Blackhall Place
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0246
Author: Niall Brady, for Project Manager: The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd.
Site type: Quay
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 714351m, N 734307m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.346615, -6.282588
Underwater investigation and land-based monitoring occurred on this site in advance of and during construction of the new bridge scheme, first reported in Excavations 2000 (No. 245, 00E0733).
The investigations focused on two locations. At the base of Usher’s Island Quay a linear stone anomaly originally considered to be a possible slipway was revealed to be a large area of collapsed walling. The walling would have functioned as a quayside in its own right, but is of a character and composition that is quite unlike the existing quay wall. A variety of late medieval and post-medieval finds associated with the wall indicate a dating framework that precedes the formalisation of the city’s quays in the early 18th century.
At the base of Ellis Quay a second investigation revealed a large and deep hole that was filled with quarried granite. It is localised to an area around the upstream abutment for the new bridge on this side of the river, and provides supporting insight to the deep and soft riverbed that would have been located here, at what was an entry to the inlet that was subsequently defined by ‘Gravel Walk Slip’ in Rocque’s map of 1756. The soft bed obviously presented a problem to the builders of Ellis Quay, and the investigation has provided an insight into the means by which the builders were able to stabilise the base of the quay wall. A series of squared timber piles were observed against this base outside the granite-filled hole and reflect further successful attempts at stabilisation.
The monitoring operation has recovered a further range of late medieval and post-medieval/modern finds. It has also recorded a large block of limestone masonry that collapsed from Ellis Quay into the river. The nature of the stonework is similar to the walling observed at the base of Usher’s Island Quay, and suggests a parallel early quay walling prior to the more formal construction represented by the present quays.
2 Vale Terrace, Lower Dargle Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
