Dalkey Island Slipway

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co. Co. / CRDS Ltd. Application for Ministerial Consent Dalkey Island Slipway List of Appendices Appendix 1: Recorded Archaeological Sites and Monuments Appendix 2: Archaeological Finds Appendix 3: Summary of National Monuments Legislation (2004) List of Figures Figure 1: Site Location Figure 2: Site Layout Figure 3: Plan of the Proposed Development ___________________________________________________1 ______________________________________ Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co. Co. / CRDS Ltd. Application for Ministerial Consent Dalkey Island Slipway 1. Introduction Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council is seeking Ministerial consent for a programme of works to be carried on Dalkey Island, Co. Dublin (RMP no. DU023-029). The proposed project is being undertaken by CRDS Ltd, in collaboration with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. It is envisaged that the project will run over a number of months. The National Monuments (Amendment) Act 2004, section 14, (1) (b) requires Ministerial Consent to proceed with the proposed development (see Appendix 3). 2. Site location and Background Dalkey Island Pier, also known as the Boat Harbour, is located on the west coast of Dalkey Island off the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Coastline. Dalkey Island is an uninhabited 22acre island some 300m east of Dalkey Village (see Figure 1). The stretch of water separating the island from the main land is known as Dalkey Sound. The boat harbour landing consists of a narrow opening on the rocky foreshore, a short length of quay wall built on a large rocky outcrop fronted by a concrete slipway to the west. The pier and slip have been used by local and visiting leisure sailors for generations (see Figure 2). The project brief is to refurbish the existing landing to provide greater access to the Island based on the initial feasibility report dated January 2010 by Howley Hayes Architects and Michael Punch and Partners (see Figure 3). 3. Aims of the Archaeological Assessment The proposed area will be inspected by to identify any possible archaeology in advance of construction work commencing. A non disturbance underwater visual survey will be carried out along with a metal detecting survey (see attached methodology) 4. Description of Archaeological Team A team of marine archaeologists will undertake the dive work. Dive work will be conducted in accordance with the requirements for Diving at Work, Safety in Industry (Diving Operations) Regulations (Ireland), 1981 and 2010. 4.1 Logistics Logistical support will be provided by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and further back- up can be provided by CRDS Ltd. if necessary for additional personnel or equipment if required. 4.2 Finds and samples All archaeological finds and samples should be stabilized, bagged and recorded according to NMI guidelines. Conservation and specialist analysis will be undertaken by the persons named below if required. Finds, samples and excavation archive will be stored in the CRDS Ltd offices, UCD, until after the completion of the report. Finds will ultimately be housed in the NMI. 4.3 Conservation CRDS Ltd retain the services of a number of finds conservation specialists, including Ms Susannah Kelly of the Archaeology Dept, UCD. 4.4 Specialist CRDS Ltd retain the services of a number of specialists, including Ms Linda Fibiger (human bone), Headland Ltd. (soils) and Dr Stephen Mandal (stone – in house). ___________________________________________________2 ______________________________________ Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co. Co. / CRDS Ltd. Application for Ministerial Consent Dalkey Island Slipway 4.5 Constraints Safety Hazards – The CRDS Ltd safety statement of practices will be complied with regard to trench depth and distances from existing structures. 4.6 Reporting A full report outlining background, methodology and results of the investigation, shall be forwarded to the NMS, NMI and to the Local Authority at the end of every season. When the programme is completed it shall be fully published, but it is envisaged that interim publications of both scholarly and popular nature shall appear at regular intervals. It is also intended to maintain and update a section on the IAFS website devoted to the research project. 5. Archaeological and Historical Background (Summary) 5.1 Prehistory The bank and ditch of a promontory fort (DU023-029001-) are discernible at the north-west end of the island. A cliff face extending from the north to the south of the promontory, divides its interior into two platforms (Leon 2005, 1). The lower or western platform overlooks the harbour and slipway while the upper or eastern platform is 2-3m higher and is more exposed. Excavations carried out by Liversage between 1956 and 1959 have uncovered extensive evidence for human activity, from the Mesolithic period onwards, within the area of the promontory fort. Two middens (DU023-029002-), containing material relating to the manufacture of stone tools and the collection of coastal resources such as shellfish, fish and birds were uncovered (Liversage 1968, 144). The lower and therefore earlier layers of the middens included ‘Bann flakes’ and other Larnian material representative of the Mesolithic period while the more recent layers includes material more typical of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Excavations on the island have also uncovered the remains of at least four Early Bronze Age burials (Corlett 1999, 113). It is possible that the island was used as a manufacturing site for metal objects dating the Bronze Age as a number of sherds of pottery and the remains of clay moulds and crucible fragments have been discovered. Scattered postholes may represent the remains of associated huts or shelters used (Liversage 1968). 5.2 Early Medieval Period Analysis of finds recovered from the promontory fort suggests that it was constructed during the early medieval period. Sherds of late-Roman and post-Roman imported pottery were uncovered beneath the enclosing bank. The use of the fort during this period is also apparent as imported pottery sherds were recovered from layers deposited after the construction of the enclosing bank (Doyle 1998, 90). The settlement produced the largest amount of imported pottery and glass known from any early medieval site in Ireland including amphorae from the eastern Mediterranean, E-ware jars and beakers possibly from western France, fine glass bowls and beakers possibly from the area around Bordeaux (Landscape Archaeology Research Group 2001, 1). In the early medieval period Dalkey and adjoining areas of north Wicklow form part of the territory of the Uí Briúin Chualann . It may have been controlled by the Dál Messin Corb, a former royal family of Laigin who lost power and withdrew over the mountains to the coast (Smith 1996, 16). St. Begnet, who was patron of early medieval churches in Dalkey and on Dalkey Island, is identified with this family. Within the village a church dedicated to St. Begnet is located at Castle Street. The church (DU023-029003-) dedicated to St. Begnet on Dalkey Island may have functioned as a hermitage similar to those found on islands off the west coast of Ireland. The architectural features of the church including the large masonry lintel over the west doorway and the projecting antae are typical of an tenth to twelfth century date (Liversage 1968, 55). Two ___________________________________________________3 ______________________________________ Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co. Co. / CRDS Ltd. Application for Ministerial Consent Dalkey Island Slipway early medieval crosses are inscribed in outcropping bedrock on the island (DU023-029005- and DU023-029012-). Excavations determined that the church was surrounded by a low wall and had an associated cemetery containing the remains of eleven burials (Corlett 1999, 125). The banks of an associated field system (DU023-029007-) are located to the northwest of the church site. During the construction of the Martello tower on the island at the beginning of the 19 th century the church was altered for use as a dwelling by the addition of a fireplace and larger windows. 5.3 Late Medieval and Post-Medieval Period (c. AD 1170-1900) The Archbishop of Dublin was granted lands at Dalkey along with Killiney and Shankill during the medieval period and established an archiepiscopal manor there. The foundation date of the borough is unknown but there are references to the bailiff in 1257-63 suggesting it had been incorporated by that time (Bradley 1988, 132). An extent of the town in 1326 records 39 burgages (Smith 1996, 18). The town of Dalkey was fortified in the late medieval period. The monument most commonly associated with the island, the Martello Tower (DU023-029009-), was constructed after 1803 in response to a renewal of hostilities between Britain and France. It is part of a line of defences constructed along the Irish coastline by British military authorities (O’Sullivan and Downey 2012, 46). It is strategically located on the highest point of the island commanding extensive views from Howth Head in the north to Bray Head in the south. The tower is an exceptionally large example and would have contained a magazine on the ground floor and a platform for two 24-pounder guns on the roof. The associated battery (DU023-029001) is a low squat structure built into granite rock on the southern tip of the island. An adjacent accommodation block housed a garrison of one officer and 40 soldiers (Landscape Archaeology Research Group 2001, 4). The tidal beach on the northwest shoreline provided a safe-landing place for boats in the past. Access was improved by the construction of a pier and breakwater during the nineteenth century (Doyle 1998, 89). ___________________________________________________4 ______________________________________ Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co. Co. / CRDS Ltd. Application for Ministerial Consent Dalkey Island Slipway References and Consultation Ball, F E., 1902. A History of the County of Dublin (Part 1). Reprinted 1995 by the HSP Library, Dublin. Bennett, I. 2000 Excavations 1998: Summary Accounts of Archaeological Excavations in Ireland . Wordwell: Bray. Bradley, J., 1998. The medieval boroughs of Co. Dublin in Dublin and Beyond the Pale: Studies in honour of Patrick Healy, Wordwell, Bray.

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