2007:452 - CORBALLIS: Dublin Airport Terminal 2, Dublin

Corballis House
Excavations at Corballis House, Dublin Airport, were undertaken in February–April 2007 in response to a joint request from the National Monuments Service and the Heritage Policy and Architectural Protection Unit, DoEHLG, to gather data on aspects of Corballis House, particularly its origins and pre-1700 history. The investigations were restricted by the necessity of leaving the building intact and restorable until a planning decision could be made about its future. They built upon substantial previous archaeological work at the house, including an EIS (by E. O’Donovan and P. Clancy) that detailed the results of previous testing by Edmond O’Donovan (Excavations 2006, No. 586, 06E0440) and a building survey (by T. Murphy).

The investigations involved the excavation of six ‘keyhole’ trenches inside Corballis House (over 16m2 in total), a large open excavation to the west of the building, a slot-trench along the south of the building (restricted by the proximity of numerous, active, modern underground services), a trench to the north of the building and an open area excavation to the east (for a total outside excavated area of over 975m2). The investigations also involved analysis of the surviving, upstanding building fabric, both a re-examination of fabric examined previously for the earlier building survey and scrutiny of new fabric (including 60m2 of interior wall, from which plaster was removed, and more than a third of the exterior walls, from which render was removed). Once a picture began to emerge of the dimensions and appearance of the earlier phases of Corballis House, a survey of comparative vernacular structures in the surround area was undertaken by Tim Murphy and the writer to provide a context for understanding the building at that time.

Following the granting of planning permission for Terminal 2, additional investigations were carried out at Corballis House in October–November. These included further analysis of the standing building and the removal of much larger areas of wall plaster/render, as well as the excavation of exterior areas that were not previously accessible (totalling an additional 168m2). The further standing building analysis was undertaken in coordination with the conservation architect and specialist contractors involved in salvaging and removing the building’s architectural features (window surrounds; plaster niches; doors, door surrounds and fanlights; stairway balusters, newel posts and rails; Victorian encaustic tiles). Once all this work was complete, the building was demolished in a phased manner to allow further archaeological analysis of its remains during the process. Finally, following demolition and the removal of the standing structure, excavation of the remaining interior area not previously accessible (some 313m2) was undertaken.

What has emerged from the investigations is a social history of the building that details its main building phases and highlights the remnants of the early structure that survived. The findings of the investigations, according to the main building phases that have been established as a result of the work, are quite complex and will be published in detail elsewhere. Overall the story is one of a 17th-century vernacular dwelling (for an occupant of middling station) undergoing renovation and rebuilding according to the fortunes and concerns of sequential generations of owners, and of its elevation from a relatively modest stone cottage to an (imperfect, eccentric) example of ‘polite architecture’ for a family of wealthier gentry concerned—like their social peers of the day—to demonstrate their taste and standing through the architecture and grounds of their home.

The earliest phase of Corballis is likely to have been built shortly after 1641/2. It incorporated reused medieval stone ope surrounds, probably from the nearby castle (see below), into its shallow foundations and wall fabric. At that time the building consisted of a single-storey, west-facing, 3-bay stone cottage with a thatched, gabled roof and a single chimney.

Later in the 17th century, a south extension that included a second fireplace was added to one end of the cottage, doubling its length. The building was still thatched with longstraw at this time, and the few small windows were probably glazed.

The next phase of renovation was probably initiated by Thomas Wilkinson after he acquired Corballis in 1706. It saw the raising of the walls of the existing building and the lowering of interior floors to accommodate the addition of an upper storey. Windows were enlarged as part of the refurbishment and a new roof of red tile and slate was added. Green-glazed ridge tiles from North Devon were used to decorate the roof peak and fashionable blue-and-white tin-glazed ‘Delft’ tiles (depicting various rural scenes) were added to either side of the enlarged downstairs fireplaces, just below the mantelpieces. Cobblestone paths threaded through a well-drained front garden to the central west entrance of Corballis House, flanked by decorative garden parterres—probably of box wood—that were considered especially pleasing when viewed from upper-storey windows.

In the 1720s, the now two-storey residence was again lengthened at its other end and a small cellar was built beneath this new north extension, nearest to the farmyard. The cellar may first have been used as a dairy pantry; it subsequently came to serve as a wine cellar and, later still, was used for coal storage.

A huge eastern addition that enlarged the house beyond its previous single-pile width and nearly doubled its size was begun around 1760 under the guidance of James Wilkinson. The opportunity was used to raise the height of the new slate roof in order to lift both ground-floor and first-floor ceilings inside the older part of the house. The front of the building was moved from the old east side entrance to the new Georgian-proportioned west façade, and a terraced cobblestone patio was laid before it. The south façade was also significantly renovated to provide a fitting prospect from the newly landscaped avenue approach. It resembled the new west front of the building, with large sash windows arranged symmetrically around a central arched doorway and fanlight.

Towards the end of the 18th century, under the direction of Sir Henry and Lady Elizabeth Wilkinson, half-octagon bows were added to each side of the south façade. Windows were systematically repositioned and enlarged, in proportion to the revised building dimensions. The central arched doorway in the southern façade was also replaced with a large window. In addition, the roof and first-storey ceilings were raised over the eastern and southern parts of the building. Shortly thereafter, the interior plasterwork of Corballis House was renewed and new decorative plaster niches were built inside one of the upper-storey bay rooms. The musical theme of these niches is a clue that this room may once have been the venue for the fashionable recitals and parties that Susannah Liddiard Wilkinson hosted around the turn of the 19th century.

Although many individual architectural features of the building were added over the remaining two centuries of its life, the basic floor plan of Corballis at the time of its removal in 2007 was that which was already in existence in the early 19th century.

DU014–011 (‘castle, site of’)
Early historical maps depict the location of a ruinous castle (tower-house) in the corner of a field, some 220m south-east of Corballis House. A variety of historical and cartographic evidence combine to suggest that the building may have been razed in 1641/2 by the forces of the Earl of Ormond. The castle’s occupant at that time was involved in the provisioning of Confederate troops besieging Drogheda late in 1641, and Ormond repaid such participation, in Fingal and parts of County Meath particularly, with targeted violence. The demise of the structure in the early 1640s is also implied by the discovery of reused dressed medieval stones in the original, mid-17th-century, vernacular cottage at Corballis House.

While groundworks across the Terminal 2 site are being archaeologically monitored/inspected, work in the vicinity of the former castle site—beneath tarmac, and modern concrete block and corrugated steel buildings—was overseen with particular scrutiny in December 2007 and early 2008. The very bottom of a former late post-medieval boundary ditch was identified, but the ground across the area had been heavily truncated by airport works over the past 60-odd years, not least by the countless trenches for services feeding the terminal, the control tower and various neighbouring buildings. No archaeology was identified in the vicinity of the RMP site.

27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2