EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Dublin
Fig. 115: Plan of ‘road’ at Essex Street West, Dublin (after Simpson 1999, 28).
PLOTS AND FENCES (Fig. 116
Ninth to twelfth centuries
A noteworthy feature of many of the Dublin excavations is that property plots remained largely static
across the centuries, which indicates an ordered and regulated town. Plots and fences are evident in
the mid ninth century and this demonstrates planning and regulation during the settlement’s earliest
days. Although fences had to be repaired and rebuilt, this was done so along the lines of the
preceding property boundary. Conversely, the houses, outbuildings and pathways within were not
static but utilised different parts of the plots from generation to generation. The following are some
examples from the Dublin excavations.
Structures within plots were evident from excavations at Exchange Street Upper/Parliament Street in
the lower levels in the mid to late ninth century. The first plots were defined by sod deposits which
were later replaced by light post and wattle walls. These plots remained constant for the most part
until the construction of a clay platform in the twelfth century (Gowen with Scully 1996, 14).
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