2006:579 - 1 and 2 Lucan Road, Chapelizod, Dublin

Test-trenching was carried out in advance of development at a site previously occupied by two 19th-century cottages. The site (15m long by 5–15m wide) is located on the west bank of the River Liffey adjoining the south-west side of the Anna Livia Bridge (DU018–027(03)). The cottages were demolished before the work began, but their footprint was the same as the buildings shown on the first-edition 6-inch OS map of 1837. The origins of the Anna Livia Bridge go back to the 18th century, but the structure has been refurbished and widened in the interim.
Testing was carried out by machine, with further manual excavation conducted in an area where pre-cottage walls came to light. The latter were razed to foundation level but are not earlier than the 18th century. As such, they may be associated with the structures shown on Rocque’s map of 1760. The principal wall terminated abruptly and is more likely to have been a boundary as opposed to a house wall.
The rear half of the site consisted entirely of late 19th-century fill that was over 2m thick in places. The fill abutted the present river revetment wall and both appeared to be contemporary. The raising of the ground level post-dates the construction of the cottages and may have been necessitated by flooding or erosion of the river bank. The cottages themselves were built in a cut made in the natural boulder clays. The natural lie of the land would have been a fairly steep slope (as preserved in Chapelizod Hill) falling eastwards to the river. The level top of the boulder clay revealed under the modern footpath and in the north section face of the site indicates that the river bank area was already levelled out prior to the construction of the row of cottages. The line of the present Lucan Road is shown on Rocque’s map, but the former existence of a ford (depicted on the Down survey map of 1654) on the site of the present bridge suggests that the origins of the road are much older.