County: Dublin Site name: 34-37 Ormond Quay Lower, Dublin 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018-020 Licence number: 18E0080
Author: Faith Bailey, IAC Ltd
Site type: Post-medieval structures
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715156m, N 735096m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.353525, -6.270221
Monitoring was carried out of groundworks associated with a hotel development located at 34–37 Ormond Quay Lower, Dublin 1 in response to planning conditions attached to the development (ABP Ref.: PL 29N.229173).
The development area is situated within the zone of potential for the historic town of Dublin (DU018-020) with the nearest recorded monuments comprising the quay (DU018-113) to the south and a riverine revetment (DU018-115) identified c. 30m to the north. The area containing the site would have been situated within estuarine silts until the reclamation programmes of the late 17th and early 18th century, following which the area was substantially developed. Previous investigations in the immediate vicinity of the development have revealed wooden revetments (DU018-115) to the north of Strand Street and former 18th-century warehouse remains to the west.
Monitoring began in June 2018 and continued on an intermittent basis – in line with the contractor’s programme - until March 2019. Monitoring was limited to the excavation of pile caps and ground beams which varied in depth between 0.6m and 1.7m below previous ground level (p.g.l.) with a maximum depth of 2.2m reached locally.
Monitoring illustrated that the underlying stratigraphy to 1.7m below p.g.l. comprised imported reclamation deposits of late 17th- to later 18th-century date. In addition, the fragmentary remains of a number of post-medieval foundations and possible backfilled, disturbed cellars. These presented as discontinuous sections of brick and limestone walls. Within two localised excavations that reached 2.2m below p.g.l., a deposit of what appeared to be medieval garden soil was identified. Upon closer inspection however, it was demonstrated that this layer overlay a deposit containing abundant crushed brick. This material was therefore imported onto site during quayside reclamation in the 17th/18th century.
The structural remains were recorded and no further archaeological mitigation is deemed to be necessary.
Unit G1 Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
