2006:660 - Dublin Bay Project Contract 5.1, Harbour Road, Howth, Dublin

An assessment was undertaken along the route of a proposed sewer pipeline in the village of Howth. The pipeline will extend along the Harbour Road and through the adjacent carpark and forms part of the 2.6km development between Howth and Sutton. The pipeline passes through the constraint zone of the national monument of St Mary’s Church and the assessment thus required ministerial consent.
Contract 5.1A involves the construction of c. 2.6km of sewer (of which 0.3km is in tunnel, the remaining section in an open cut), with depths of 2–7m. The proposed sewers are located mainly along Howth Road and Harbour Road. Also proposed is the construction of a new pumping station within the existing Dublin City Council depot and a combined sewer overflow (CSO) and storm tank within Howth carpark in the Howth Harbour area. Five trenches were opened mechanically along the line of the proposed sewer pipe at locations agreed with the National Monuments Section of the DoEHLG.
The evidence from the assessment trenches indicates that the area appears to have been beach or foreshore up until the period when the harbour was developed. Howth became the official mail-packet station in 1800 and seven years later construction of the harbour commenced to accommodate the increased traffic. The siting of the harbour caused some controversy and the design was criticised in some quarters for being nothing more than a sand trap. Such was the effect on official opinion that the harbour at Dún Laoghaire was started after eighteen months and £350,000 had been spent on Howth.
The foreshore activities prior to this may have included rubbish deposition (as evidenced by the presence of discarded animal bone in Trenches 2 and 5). Although this material is hardly prehistoric, it may be significant that no pottery was recovered in association with the animal bone, suggesting the depositions are from the early post-medieval period, after the time when the area was inundated with sand.
The exposure of the tram tracks aroused some local interest during the assessment. The trams used to travel up to the East Pier area, where they would turn around to face back into the city. When the service was withdrawn, it appears a decision was made not to remove the tracks, presumably because they were so well embedded into the street surface. The removal of the tracks also proved difficult during the assessment and a decision was taken to leave them in situ and to work around them using a trenching bucket.
The assessment did not produce material of any great archaeological significance. Construction of the proposed sewerage pipeline is planned to proceed in 2007. As agreed with the DoEHLG, a licence will be taken out to inspect and monitor groundworks on a regular basis during this phase and the work will be reported in a future edition of Excavations.