County: Cork Site name: JAMES FORT, Old Fort
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO112-036---- Licence number: 98E0279
Author: Mary G. O’Donnell, Archaeological Services Unit, University College Cork
Site type: Bastioned fort
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 564603m, N 549705m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.698628, -8.512064
James Fort, Kinsale, Co. Cork, is the site of a 17th-century star-shaped fort with a central inner fortification. Part of this inner building was excavated in 1998 at the request of Dúchas to facilitate ongoing conservation and restoration work on the site. The results of that excavation and a report on earlier work on the site were recently published (O’Donnell 2002).
Further monitoring and excavation work was undertaken over eight days in August, September and December 2003. The majority of the work was in advance of the restoration/heightening of the rampart wall around the east bastion. An L-shaped trench, c. 1m wide, was excavated around the inside of the rampart wall of much of the bastion. The material uncovered was similar to that from the 1998 excavation, with evidence relating to both construction of the fort c. 1608 and the capture of the site after a fire at the entrance during the siege of 1690. A stone wall separating the bastion from the rest of the site was also uncovered.
Reference
O’Donnell, M. 2002 Excavations at James Fort, Kinsale, 1974–98, Journal of the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society 107, 1–70.
