Dublin City Archaeological Archive/24-26 Ardee Street, Dublin 8 (03E0315)

Context

Creator(s): Margaret Gowen and Company

• Administrative History ↴

  Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd., Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin, is a professional archaeological company founded in the early 1980s. The company has carried out a number of archaeological excavations and development-led investigations arising from the requirements of development control and planning process, in line with legal provisions of the Planning and Development Acts (2000) and the National Monuments Acts (1930-2004) and Amendments Acts. The 24-26 Ardee Street Collection is one of many site archives that has been generated through these development-led excavations. The excavation of the site was carried out in advance of a proposed development by Naltmore Ltd. An assessment of the site was carried out in April 2003. Excavation took place between October 2003 and February 2004. The site occupies the corner of Ardee Street and Cork Street and is bounded to the west by Robinson's Court and to the north by a large masonry-and-brick wall which was constructed c. 1680. The most substantial feature recorded over the site was a large homogenous deposit of grey clay silt, present on all areas but most substantial in the centre, where it was at least 2.75m in depth. This has been interpreted as being the silted-up remains of a millpond associated with the nearby abbey of St Thomas. The pond appears to have been fed by the Commons Water, a natural watercourse that has its origins in Drimnagh. The stream extended across the centre of the site and was underpinned and covered by a brick arch by Dublin Corporation in 1874. The excavated evidence suggests that the underpinning partly replaced an earlier formal channelling of the stream, which had run along its pre-2004 course at least since 1684. The most significant post-medieval find was the remains of a defensive earthwork thrown up by troops loyal to the Duke of Ormond in 1643. The evidence from Ardee Street presents as an earthen bank located over the medieval Abbey Stream, but in front of the stream's main channel. It is additionally likely that the millpond, which was silted up in 1603, could have been deliberately flooded, forming an additional defensive feature to the west of the bank flanking the approach to the city along Cork Street. The earthen bank survived over a distance of 5.8m (north-south). The bank was truncated to the north by the insertion of the brick cistern associated with an 18th-century brewery. A large square pit cut through the bank material. It measured 1.56-1.74m across and was some 0.66-0.93m deep. The primary fill was organic clay-silt up to 0.25m in depth containing fragments of leather shoes. This cess-like material was piled up in the centre of the pit, away from the edges. This fill contained clay-pipe fragments dating to the period 1640-1680. The pit may have been a makeshift latrine, but there was no evidence recorded for an associated temporary structure.

• Archival History ↴

  Transferred by Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd. To Dublin City Archives, 25 September 2009

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation