County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: Mother Redcap’s Market, Lamb Alley
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1667
Author: Helen Kehoe
Site type: Town defences
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 714937m, N 733882m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.342671, -6.273947
An assessment was carried out at Mother Redcap’s Market, Dublin 8. It is proposed to redevelop the market, which is currently not in use. The assessment involved the opening of one trench against the south wall of the present standing building.
The profile of the southern end of the trench revealed the existing market wall extending down to an earlier floor surface at 0.8m below the present floor. This surface was also visible at the northern end of the trench and appeared to be the original floor of the existing building, subsequently built up by 0.75m of 18th-century infill to create the present ground surface. The faced blackstone wall, the top of which was revealed at 0.95m below the present market floor surface, appeared to be the remains of the medieval city wall. It comprised medium-sized, mortared blackstones (average dimensions 0.15m by 0.2m). It extended into the trench by 0.5m as measured from the standing market wall. The present market floor level was 1.65m higher than the Lamb Alley footpath level, and the medieval wall remains were at 0.7m higher than Lamb Alley.
The historical cartographic evidence indicates that the northern end of Lamb Alley extends directly along the alignment of the medieval city wall and is generally consistent in this layout in its present-day configuration. The historical and physical evidence strongly suggests that the blackstone wall underneath the existing market wall and infill deposits is the remains of the medieval city wall in situ.
11 Norseman Place, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7
