EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Dublin
The following is based on general and thematic papers on Scandinavian Dublin (Murray 1983;
Simpson 2000; Wallace 1992a, 1992b, 2001, 2004) and a range of excavation publications related to
the town. It will focus on various aspects of the town’s layout including its location, defences, streets
and pathways, plots and fences, structures and evidence for craft and industry. The summary will
begin with an assessment of Dublin’s earliest Scandinavian phase in the ninth century – the
settlement and potential longphort site – and will be followed with a chronological appraisal of the
Hiberno-Scandinavian town’s tenth, eleventh and twelfth century archaeological levels (Fig. 110).
Fig. 110: Plan of Hiberno-Scandinavian Dublin (after Walsh 2001, 90).
Ninth Century (Fig. 111)
Archaeological evidence for the first Scandinavian settlement in Dublin has, until recently, been
absent leading to disagreement amongst scholars about its whereabouts. The sites of Dublin Castle,
Kilmainham/Islandbridge, the ecclesiastical enclosure (either the area bounded by Stephen Street,
Whitefriar Street and Peter’s Row or the church of St Michael le Pole) and Usher’s Island have all
been suggested for the location of the longphort (see overview in Simpson 2000, 21–1). However,
excavations at Exchange Street Upper/Parliament Street (Gowen with Scully 1996; Scally 2002) and
Temple Bar West (Simpson 1999) have revealed banks, a road, pathways, structures and plots dating
between the mid ninth and tenth centuries based on radiocarbon dates and artefact comparisons.
The sites were located in the north-eastern section of the later tenth-century town with the River
Liffey to the north and the River Poddle to the east. An early bank at Ross Road potentially marks the
southern boundary (see below) while Halpin (2005, 102–4) proposes that the western edge of the
settlement occurred at Fishamble Street/Werburgh Street prior to the expansion of the town in the
tenth century.
210