County: Antrim Site name: Donegal Quay, Belfast
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/08/131
Author: Johanna Vuolteenaho, Gail Howell and Laura Boden, for ADS Ltd, Unit 6, Old Channel Road, Belfast, BT3 9DE.
Site type: Urban, post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 734272m, N 874695m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.602660, -5.921754
The Obel development is presently under way within the vicinity of Donegal Quay in Central Belfast. The proposed development will involve the construction of a two-storey underground carpark, with three multi-storey mixed retail, office and hotel developments above. The site is bounded by Corporation Square to the north, Donegal Quay to the west, the Lagan Lookout Visitor Centre to the south and the River Lagan to the east. It lies on the eastern edge of the zone of archaeological potential that delimits medieval and 17th-century Belfast.
During the period from November 2005 until March 2006, monitoring by Stefanie McMullen of all groundworks within the first phase of the Obel development took place under licence AE/05/151 (Excavations 2006, No. 37). The archaeological remains uncovered during this phase of monitoring consisted of the remnants of Limekiln Dock, dating from c. 1760 and located roughly within the centre of the development area.
The second stage of groundworks monitoring began on 18 June 2008. To date, monitoring of drainage works has revealed two red-brick walls surviving six courses in height, which appear to be 19th/20th-century in date, evidence of stone square-set blocks (cobbles) associated with the tramway, a wooden drain surrounding an iron pipe, and the arch of an old red-brick Victorian drain.
Work on this site is ongoing.
