County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 52–56 Strand Street Great
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0240
Author: Claire Walsh
Site type: Riverine revetment
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 717025m, N 734026m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.343506, -6.242546
The development site lies within the jurisdiction of the medieval liberty of St Mary’s, governed by St Mary’s Abbey, some distance to the north of the River Liffey. It lies outside the perimeter wall of the abbey, as depicted on Speed’s map of 1610. This area of the city has seen large-scale redevelopment in recent years, but no deposits of medieval date, or structures of post-medieval date, have been uncovered through excavation in this immediate area.
Testing of the site did not uncover any significant deposits; however, during the monitoring of soil removal for a basement carpark, a timber riverside revetment was revealed. A full excavation followed over eight weeks. The timber structure appeared to be back braced and consisted of wide timber boards held in place on a series of scarf-jointed base-plates. It stood to a height of 0.6m and was exposed for a length of 25m. The structure appeared to have been short-lived and was sealed with river-deposited gravels. No finds were recovered from the lower levels of the deposits. All of the structural timbers are oak. The location of the revetment corresponds with that of an inlet on the Liffey, depicted on Speed’s 1610 map of Dublin. A dendrochronological date from the timbers is awaited.
27 Coulson Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6
