County: Dublin Site name: 181–124 The Coombe, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0150
Author: Claire Walsh, 27 Coulson Avenue, Dublin 6.
Site type: Urban, medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 714934m, N 733489m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.339142, -6.274135
Full excavation of this large site located opposite the junction of Francis Street and the Coombe was carried out from August 2008 to January 2009. The site was spectacular in the preservation of early structures, with plot boundaries consistent from probably the pre- Norman period through to the 19th century. The survival of these is due to the lack of cellars from the post- medieval period, as the site flanks the Coombe Stream and water control was a constant issue.
The earliest level was a well-laid metalled roadway, which extended east–west across the site, and is probably coeval with the ‘Slige Dala’, one of the four great roadways of Ireland. The road was bounded on the north side by a ditch, whose lower levels contained natural silting. Close to the junction with Francis Street, dumps of brushwood in the ditch indicated a crossing point. This was overlain by a dump of boulders consolidated with stones. No datable finds were recovered from either the ditch or the silt and sod which overlay the metalled roadway, which suggests that the road and flanking ditch are of pre-Norman date. A 14C date from a contemporary post-and-wattle fence along the side of part of the ditch is awaited.
The ditch was later deliberately infilled and a series of plots, stretching from the street front towards the rear, were laid out. Six plots, with post-and-wattle structures at the earliest level, were excavated. The structures were remarkably consistent in form, and had thick clay or marl floors, off-central hearths, benches or beds on one side only, and little or no finds whatsoever from the occupation floors. Preliminary analysis of the ceramics suggests a pre-Norman date for the plot layout and initial building.
One plot held a continuous series of structures from the pre-Norman period through to the 14th/15th century. The later 17th century is largely represented by water pipes and cisterns, the building remains of this period having been obliterated by the 18th- and 19th-century mapped building remains.
