quay/wharf

Dressed ashlar granite quay wall, erected c.1790, with bell-profile coping. Cast-iron ladders having vertical hand-rails and niches to south face, and mooring rings. Granite steps to east end. Stretching from Ha’penny Bridge to O’Connell Bridge, on south side of River Liffey.

Aston Quay was originally laid out in the late seventeenth century, on land reclaimed from the River Liffey, and was named after Henry Aston, a Dublin merchant. Both it and Crampton Quay were rebuilt in the late eighteenth century as part of the Wide Street Commission's work to construct a continuous quayside and associated thoroughfare along the south side of the River Liffey. It is executed in ashlar granite, attesting to the high level of technical skill and artisanship employed in its construction. It is a significant part of the city’s historic urban fabric and civil engineering heritage.