2002:0582 - DUBLIN: Liffey House, Tara Street, Dublin

The western boundary of the site originally formed part of a ground-level carpark. This 2.8m-wide strip revealed a refuse deposit at 0.555m OD. It lay directly under modern infill deposits. The layer of deposition averaged 0.5–0.1m deep and comprised a pungent, compacted, organic mixture of straw/manure from which a variety of post-medieval finds were retrieved. It had been cut by the sheet-piling along its western boundary and by the insertion of the original concrete basement floor on its eastern side. It extended for 32m southward. Natural gravels emerged at 0.095m OD.

A variety of post-medieval finds were retrieved from the refuse deposit, including cattle horns, clay pipe, leather fragments, shell, animal bone, red-brick and wood fragments, and pottery sherds.

The initial underpinning trench, excavated in the north-east corner of the site, revealed a timber in the section at 0.443m OD. It was 1m long and 0.05m thick, with a roughly square piece of timber, 0.1m by 0.14m, in situ to the left of its base. The base of the timber remains was 4.2m below present street level. Grey river silt, 0.4m deep, lay in situ against the timber section.

The pungent, compact, straw-filled refuse appears to have been related to horses, possibly as a result of stabling. The retrieval of a wooden curry-comb and leather bridle fragment support this theory. The finds were of 18th-/19th-century date. It is known that the Tara Street fire station, which opened in 1909 and was situated just south of the site, originally used horse-drawn fire trucks; it is possible that the horses were stabled to the rear of the station, within the perimeters of the present-day Liffey House.

The oak wooden remains found in the section of one of the underpinning trenches appear to be a continuation of the 17th-century timber revetments that were excavated by Claire Walsh before the redevelopment of the Markievicz swimming pool in 1998 (Excavations 1998, No. 192, 97E0484).