County: Dublin Site name: Promenade Road, Dublin Road, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 18E0172
Author: Paul Duffy & Robert Hanbidge
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 719691m, N 735158m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.353076, -6.202113
Archaeological monitoring was carried out at Promenade Road, Dublin port between March 2018 and June 2019; the second phase commenced in spring 2019 and continued intermittently until summer 2019.
Results from monitoring ground works revealed that large-scale beach sands were imported in the later part of the early 20th century to build up the land for reclamation. Ground excavations carried out did not expose any natural or redeposited estuarine silts. All infill material that was exposed consisted of fine-grained beach sands with shells scattered throughout and occasional inclusions of red brick fragments (Plate 1). These sand infill deposits were located under 0.8m hardcore and 0.1 tarmac to the surface. At some locations along this development, a substantial modern overburden deposit covered the areas of works which required some removal in preparation for these excavations. Once these areas were cleared, the maximum depth that these ground excavations to the northern portion of works reached was 3.5m below present ground levels. Excavation works to the southern side reached a maximum depth of 2m. As a result, there was no potential risk to any deeply buried archaeological material. Previously installed structural plies comprising of reinforced concrete, were exposed along the length of the main trench. As the excavation approached the area of coal yard, close to Fire Road, there was still no further evidence of either rubble or upstanding brick walls. Again, infill deposits of mixed beach sands were ubiquitous covering the area.
Drainage excavation carried out on Promenade Road toward Bond Drive in May 2019 also saw a prevalence of imported beach sand material with one exception. A gravelly garden soil full of limestone and broken concrete was uncovered. That this context was modern was confirmed by the presence of plastic inclusions within its matrix.
No features of archaeological significance were identified during this programme of monitoring therefore no further archaeological mitigation is deemed necessary.
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