2015:598 - Luas Cross City Main Infrastructure Civil and Track Works, from Broadstone, Dublin 7 to Broombridge Dublin 11, Dublin

Archaeological monitoring and excavation was undertaken for Luas Cross City (LCC) Main Infrastructure Civil and Track Works between May 2015 and March 2017 in accordance with Licence No. 15E0185. This licence was subsequently transferred to Mark Moraghan of Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd.

This section of the LCC scheme is largely off-street, commencing within the western portion of the former Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) Broadstone Terminus and extending along the full length of the former MGWR rail cutting and embankments past the site of Liffey Junction and terminating at Broombridge where the new Broombridge depot is located.

During the course of the monitoring programme structural remains relating to the former MGWR line including the extensive yard of the former Broadstone Terminus and a railway cutting running parallel to Royal Canal, on lands once occupied by Broadstone Harbour (to the south of the former Broadstone Terminus) and the Richmond Penitentiary at Grangegorman (located directly west of the former Broadstone Terminus) were mainly revealed. Only one feature, a boundary ditch found to the north end of this project close to Liffey Junction, may relate to a pre-1800 rural farmed landscape. This feature was situated at a level below the water level of the Royal Canal and may relate to a field boundary depicted on Rocque’s Map (1756) and subsequently depicted as the townland boundary on the 1st Edition 6-inch Ordnance Survey map (1843) between Grangegorman North and Tolka Park. However, a range of artefacts dating from the 16th to mid-18th century was recovered during the excavations, pointing to earlier activity in the general vicinity of the LCC alignment.

Archaeological excavation of a cemetery located within the new Pedestrian Access Route to the LCC Grangegorman stop, that has been related to the cholera epidemic of 1832, was also carried out under this licence, but is the subject of a separate Final Report (Moraghan et al. 2018). However, further evidence for the original extent of the cemetery and disposition of the remains during the MGWR expansion in the 1870s were uncovered during archaeological monitoring and excavation works along the main LCC alignment.

The other key findings were the remains of an engine roundhouse, one of only six ever constructed on the island of Ireland, and an undocumented machine house both located within the former MGWR Broadstone railyard, as well as the remains of the Chemical Manure Works (c. 1861–1870) located at the 7th Lock between the rail track and the Royal Canal.

Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd. Unit 2, Europa Enterprise Park, Midleton, Co. Cork.