2014:518 - 1-4 Windmill Lane, Dublin 2, Dublin

On foot of an An Bord Pleanála condition, two test trenches were excavated to the rear of No. 5 Windmill Lane in a successful attempt to locate the foundation of a windmill which stood on the site from its initial development c. 1820 until 1971. A secondary objective was to record the upper level of the silts introduced over the area prior to the construction of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, and the consequent reclamation of the area over the first half of the 18th century. The silts were located at 1.6-1.85m below the present ground slab and were sealed by a deposit of dark organic material c. 0.2-0.35m in depth which had been dumped across the site as an initial reclamation deposit. The windmill was constructed directly on the silts with an 1.8m wide foundation supported on radial timber beams. The structure stood proud of the silts to 1.8m and had an internal diameter of 8.5m. It was constructed from large blocks of Dublin calp limestone. On the interior an ovoid stone platform was truncated by a modern concrete shop floor which would appear to date to the windmill’s reuse as a space within shoe factory from the 1940s. The date of the windmill’s removal has been established to February 1971, however, apart from a photograph published in The Irish Times, there appears to have been little public commentary on its removal from the cityscape. The windmill foundation was fully excavated in September 2015.

Archaeology and Built Heritage, 79 Queen Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7