County: Dublin Site name: IRISHTOWN: Garda Station, Irishtown Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018–054 Licence number: 05E0653
Author: Kevin Lohan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 718327m, N 733469m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.338215, -6.223215
The site is bounded to the east by Irishtown Road, to the south by Londonbridge Road, to the north by the site of Irishtown Parish Hall and to the west by private residences. All buildings that stood on the site have been demolished.
In the three test-trenches excavated on the site the soil profiles proved to be remarkably consistent. The same deposits of the same thickness present themselves in each of the trenches. These deposits very clearly show two episodes of land reclamation. The initial land reclamation is about 0.7m in depth. Inclusions in the deposit comprised large amounts of both shell and water-rolled pebbles. This suggests that this material was originally dredged. This would correspond with the idea that this land was first reclaimed during the dredging and redirection of the Dodder River in the late 1700s.
Sitting above this was a 0.5m-deep layer of buried topsoil. This shows that this ground level was either in use or at least in existence for a considerable period of time. Above this is another layer of land reclamation. As opposed to the reclamation deposits below it, this had little in the way of shell or pebbles but rather contained large quantities of demolition rubble. This shows that, rather than the second episode of land reclamation being associated with works on the river or canal, it was associated with the demolition of buildings and redevelopment. The final reclamation layer has been severely disturbed by modern insertions of service pipes, as well as being tarmaced over. The former garda station had been built into this second layer.
27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
