2.1.2 Pre-Historic Dublin

The arrival of man after the ice age commenced with the hunter gatherers of the Mesolithic period (7,500–3,500 BC). They lived throughout the country and depended mainly on the sea and rivers for their survival. Evidence of Mesolithicera fish traps formed of interwoven hazel and alder was found in what is now Spencer Dock.

The Neolithic period (3,500– 2,500 BC) followed and with it people who farmed the land by grazing and shifting cultivation. They formed settlements, cleared woodland and left burial mounds and tombs. The Phoenix Park contains evidence of their existence by the presence of a burial mound at Knockmary.

Later Bronze Age (2500 – 500BC) sites are evident around Dublin. These include fulacht fiadhs cooking pits, one of which was found in Fr Collins Park in Donaghmede and an interesting wooden revetment at Islandbridge formed with willow, hazel, oak, blackthorn and elm. Later in the Iron Age (500–400BC), a hurdle path and brushwood platform were constructed at what is now Ormond Quay.

The trend of human interaction with the then original natural environment within these very early historical periods slowly moves from one living as part of the environment into one commencing its control and management.