County: Dublin Site name: Lucan Road, Chapelizod
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 20E0604
Author: Derek Gallagher
Site type: 19th-century Victorian boundary wall
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 710020m, N 734382m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.348204, -6.347582
Archaeological monitoring of topsoil removal and preservation by record took place of a wall on the site of a development at Lucan Road, Chapelizod, Dublin.
Monitoring of topsoil stripping and scrub clearance was carried out on a phased bases between October 2020 and February 2021.
The sod and topsoil (C1) measured an average of 0.41m in thickness and lay above the orange gravelly clay (C2). A 19th-century mortared stone wall (C3) was exposed beneath an extensive area of overgrown weeds and briars. The wall was orientated north-west/south-east and measured 26m in length by 1.4m in height by 0.4m in thickness; it had been constructed from mortared angular granite blocks capped with a line of stone set vertically. No archaeological features or deposits were exposed or identified, and no finds were recovered.
The wall represented a Victorian boundary wall separating the rows of terraced houses fronting onto the Lucan Road, with the orchards behind. This wall can be clearly seen as an overgrown stone wall on the aerial images of Chapelizod taken in 1954-1955 and is illustrated on the 3rd edition Ordnance Survey map of 1907 and the Cassini map of 1935-1936 but is not illustrated on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1836. The wall represents the remains of a mid-19th-century property boundary. Dublin City Council and the National Monuments Service instructed that the wall be subject to excavation/preservation by record prior to removal to enable the development works to proceed.
No features of archaeological significance were identified on the site and no finds were recovered.
Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit, Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
