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lines of communication in medieval dublin Howard B. Clarke Key words: communication, Dublin, public spaces, roads; streets. “Communication” can take many forms. Medieval cities and towns, even those of a modest size, were complex organisms that required diverse mechanisms to make them function effectively. It could be argued that the topic divides itself naturally into three main types: first, physical in terms of traffic flows on land and on water; secondly, administrative in terms of judicial, political and social control; and thirdly, personal in terms of formal and informal modes of contact. In effect, physical communication cannot properly be understood in a true historical sense in the absence of the other two dimensions. In addition some cities and towns were remodelled quite radically at a later stage; this was the case at Novgorod in northern Russia in the late eighteenth century, hence the impressive archaeology of medieval street levels. Other street patterns remained much the same and still do so today. In what follows, the main focus will be on physical communication inside the medieval city (the theme of the conference) but, in the interests of balance, lines of administrative and personal communication will also be examined more briefly in turn. Dublin is an example of both processes. Some of the older parts of the city were remodelled by the Wide Streets Commission in the second half of the eighteenth century;1 on the other hand there was notable continuity with regard to the main route-ways. Early historic highways were among the main arteries of communication in and near the medieval city.2 This basic pattern was established before the Viking 1 Edel Sheridan, “Designing the Capital City: Dublin c. 1660-1810”, in: Joseph Brady and Anngret Simms (ed.), Dublin through Space and Time (c. 900-1900), Dublin: Four Courts Press 2001, p. 108-135. 2 Ruth D. Edwards, An Atlas of Irish History, 2nd edn, London and New York: Methuen 1981, p. 189-191. 21 Age (i.e. before A.D. 800). Four major highways converged on Dublin Bay, which must have functioned, as today, as a point of embarkation for the neighbouring island of Britain. All four highways have Irish names and represent the highest category of road described in a tract composed around A.D. 700.3 There is one striking piece of archaeological confirmation—a wooden bridge across the River Shannon dated dendrochronologically to 804.4 Two less important roads focused on the site of Dublin are hinted at, one to the ceremonial site at Tara and the other to the great monastery of Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. This pattern of long-distance routeways can be viewed in relation to the Viking settlement, which in the tenth century evolved into a town (Fig. 1). Much Viking raiding was conducted on horseback along these route-ways and only a small amount by ship. Thus the basic street pattern was pre-urban in origin. By c. 1300 the Anglo-Norman city had an intricate network of streets, both inside and outside the defensive walls (Fig. 2). Some of the major alignments of streets replicated the pattern of long-distance route-ways laid down centuries earlier. Most centrally, the axial route from Thingmount Street to St Thomas’s Street followed the northern edge of the low ridge forming the east–west spine. This had been the Slige Mhór (= “great road”) of the early Middle Ages, probably without any modification in direction . The area later called Cornmarket had been the focal point of pre-Viking Áth Cliath. The north–south axis is more complicated, basically because the early ford had been replaced by a bridge a short distance downstream. At the southern end of Bridge Street, people had the choice of using Cooks’ Street or of exiting via Gormond’s Gate and ascending the hill outside the western wall before re-entering the main city at Newgate. Another major axis extended down St Francis’s Street, across the River Poddle and then south along New Street. Yet another followed The Coombe (meaning “valley”), a pre-Viking route-way called the Slige Dhála (“road of the assemblies”). The most important streets were not necessarily wide: a good example is Skinners’ Row as shown on Rocque’s map of 1756 (Fig. 3). One exception is Broad Street, which unfortunately does not survive, but which functioned as the original marketplace of Oxmantown. Not many back lanes are documented before 1300, the best examples being Sutor Street, Rochelle Street and...

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