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Temple Bar in the Viking period •
Temple Bar lies to the east of the medieval walled town of Dublin, on the
south bank of the river Liffey. Its location outside the walls and the fact
that a large portion of the area is reclaimed, has resulted in its categorization
to the post-medieval period of Dublin history, ignoring the fact it formed
part of the all-important eastern suburb of Viking Dublin. Dame Street, which
borders Temple Bar on the south, was the main Viking thoroughfare, which led
directly into the embanked and later walled Viking town. It led directly from
the ‘Stein’ or Long Stone, the landing point of the Vikings which
was located somewhere close to Pearse Street Garda Station, to the east of
Temple Bar. The east end of Temple Bar formed part of a public green, which
was known as the ‘Hoggen Green’, the word ‘hogg’ derived
from the Viking word ‘haugr’ meaning mound, usually used to denote
a burial mound. The later documentary sources do record the destruction of
a least two such mound in the late seventeenth century. A third mound, known
as the ‘hogges’ and located somewhere close to Suffolk Street
was demolished and removed as late as the seventeenth century.
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The ‘thing mót’ and
Temple Lane •
To the extreme west, the area around Cork Hill/Parliament
Street and the east end of EssexStreet
East was known as the ‘Thing-mót’, taking its name from
the Viking public assembly meeting point which was somewhere in the immediate
vicinity. That this area was the centre of public attention highlights how
important the eastern suburb was to the Viking settlement: when the king of
England, Henry II, came to Dublin after it was conquered in the late twelfth
century, it was here he built his palace ‘of twigs’. One street
for which we have documentary evidence is Temple Lane, which led from Dame
Street to the original line of Liffey, (to the south of the present day Essex
Street East). This lane was originally called ‘hoggs’ lane, the
word ‘hogg’ similarly derived from the Viking word ‘haugr’.
The lane extended along a peninsula which jutted out into the Liffey at a
pointwhere the Liffey could be forded at low tide. This ford extended across
a diagonal line of high bedrock, still visible today in the Liffey when the
tide is out. It probably used as a crossing point from
