County: Antrim Site name: Donegal Quay, Belfast
Sites and Monuments Record No.: IHR 10030:008:00 Licence number: AE/05/151
Author: Stefanie McMullen, ADS Ltd, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast, BT12 5BJ.
Site type: 18th-century dock and 19th-century quay
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 734322m, N 874595m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.601749, -5.921027
Monitoring was carried out on the site of a mixed retail, office and hotel development with underground carpark, at Donegal Quay, in Belfast city centre. Groundworks necessary to facilitate the new construction resulted in the discovery of archaeological deposits, comprising the remains of the former 18th-century Limekiln Dock and later construction of Donegal Quay, both of which were found to be surviving below modern made ground within the development.
The earliest structure uncovered, the remains of the Limekiln Dock, dates to around the mid-18th century and was located roughly within the centre of the development area. The dock comprised a main north–south wall which extended the full length of the site confines, with an opening located towards the centre of the wall as exposed, forming an inlet of c. 25m in width. The walls were exposed c. 2.5m below ground level and survived to a height of 4m at best. They were generally constructed of rectangular stone blocks, battered out towards the base, which comprised a rough stone surface within the inlet. This inlet provided a slipway for small vessels to access the dock at high tide and off-load goods such as salt, intended for use in the limekiln which gave the dock its name. The dock walls extend westwards outside the site confines.
A second phase of construction was present in the form of a timber quay thought to have been built in the early 19th century, which blocked off the slipway into the Limekiln Dock and extended 15m from the earlier dock wall, extending the limit of the quay further into the river edge, and also stretched the entire length of the development site. The quay comprised four main individual rows of large, in situ upright timbers and a fifth row of smaller timbers which closed the mouth of the dock and also extended behind the main dock wall.
The rows of timbers all ran north–south, parallel to the river and original dock wall. Each row was constructed slightly differently, of various shapes and sizes, and driven into the sleech. The timbers ranged from square to circular, from 0.24–0.3m in diameter and from 5–10m in length.
The timber quay also eventually went out of use, and the entire area was infilled so that the quay could be extended again.
The structures uncovered within this development site are evidence of the improvements and modifications made to this area of Belfast’s port and harbour facilities during this industrious period in the city.
