2022:883 - Bishop Lucey Park, Grand Parade, Cork, Cork

Archaeological excavation was carried out on a section of the city wall in Bishop Lucey Park in advance of its proposed renovation. Bishop Lucy Park is located within the historic walled medieval city of Cork extending from Grand Parade on the east side to South Main Street on the west. South Main Street formed the southern half of the central spine of the medieval city. Grand Parade runs on the line of a culverted watercourse while the city wall extends north-south across the eastern end of the park. The watercourse, when open, ran outside the city wall and parallel to it. A portion of the city wall is visible as a heritage feature surrounded by a concrete deck and viewing platform within the park. The visible section of wall was excavated in 1984 (Hurley 1985) and in the following year Cork City Council opened the park as a recreational space in the city centre. The 1984 excavation exposed the city wall (Wall 1) and an earlier east-west oriented wall (Wall 2) which the excavator suggested may have formed part of a dock possibly until a 16^th-/17^th-century realignment of the wall removed the dock to form a straight run of city wall. Constant flooding limited the scope of the excavation and neither the city wall nor Wall 2 were excavated in their entirety. Wall 2 and the southern excavated portion of the city wall were subsequently backfilled. Prior to the 1984 excavation a smaller portion of city wall, to the south of the visible portion, was excavated (Hurley and Power 1981) and subsequently backfilled. Between these two excavated portions a small section of wall approximately 5m long remained unexcavated.

The purpose of this excavation was to re-open the southern part of the trench excavated in 1984 (Hurley 1985) and assess the condition of the excavated (and reburied) walls (Wall 1 and Wall 2) with a view to their exposure as features in the park. In addition, it was proposed to extend the trench southwards to assess the condition of the previously unexcavated portion of city wall to the south of the 1984 excavation and north of the 1981 excavation.

The excavated trench extended south from the concrete deck surrounding the exposed portion of city wall. The concrete deck was revealed as a very substantial pre-cast reinforced slab sitting on two substantial concrete pillars within the footprint of the 1984 excavation. Removal of the concrete structure was not feasible during the excavation given its large scale.

The excavation trench measured approximately 7m north-south by 8m. The city wall was exposed at a depth of approximately 0.4m below the concrete deck at the southern end of the trench. At the northern end of the trench, the wall was breached for a length of approximately 2m immediately adjacent and to the south of the concrete deck and pillars. Two Wavin pipes were inserted into the breach, one turned north and ran into the face of Wall 2 and the other extended across the breach. The top of the city wall was 2.74m wide at maximum and its outer face was exposed for a length of 4.5m. Its inner face was exposed for a length of just 1.85m, its southern end was removed by the insertion of a 400mm diameter concrete pile causing significant damage to the inner wall face. The wall was of random rubble construction, roughly coursed and largely of limestone. Where it was breached an inner earthen rubble core mixed with some mortar was visible. As noted in the 1984 excavation the alignment of the wall was slightly angled in relation to the exposed portion of wall already on display.

The inner wall face was exposed to a height of 1.15m, it was almost vertical with the top leaning slightly to the west. The inner face was roughly coursed and constructed of random-rubble, roughly-dressed limestone with occasional sandstone. There was no evidence of in situ stratigraphy in the material excavated inside the wall face.

The outer face was exposed to a height of 2m below which the trench flooded and excavation was not possible. A joint in the outer face was apparent showing two phases of construction, the later one (to the south) probably a repair to the wall. The earlier northern section was well-built, coursed and constructed of roughly dressed squared mostly limestone blocks. It was clay-bonded and battered. The later southern section was roughly coursed of angular blocks and was mortar-bonded in the upper courses, in particular. In contrast to the earlier phase this section was vertical. It was not possible to expose this section of wall to the same depth as the northern, earlier section due to overlying banked material but a drain opened through the lower visible course of the outer face at the southern end of the trench. The drain continued to the east of the wall face for approximately 1m and extended further outside the excavation.

A small random rubble wall (Wall 3) 0.5m wide extended east-west across the top of the city wall. It was largely of limestone construction loosely bonded with lime mortar. Two drains (Drain 1 and Drain 2) were cut into the top of the wall. Drain 1 ran generally north-south with a slight curve to the north-north-west and was truncated by Drain 2 which extended east-west across the wall curving slightly along its course.

Two possible portions of Wall 2 were traced in the trench extending discontinuously for a length of 6.2m. The eastern portion was exposed between the two concrete pillar supports for the concrete deck extending across the exposed portion of city wall. The western portion was exposed at the western end of the concrete deck at a depth of 1.7m below the top of the concrete deck and approximately 2m below a modern low retaining wall framing a raised green area in the park. The depth at which it was revealed curtailed its investigation. The exposed portion ran east-west at right angles to the city wall and at its eastern end was covered by the concrete floor to the west of the exposed section of city wall thus obscuring its relationship to the city wall. It was just over 1m in length and 1.55m wide. It was of limestone construction with a core of limestone rubble. Limited investigation of its northern face indicated it had a vertical face. Small-scale investigation of the southern face to a depth of approximately 0.2m indicated it was battered. The wall appeared to be clay-bonded.

The second, eastern section of Wall 2 was encased in concrete at both ends by the construction of the concrete pillar supports for the concrete deck. Only the southern face of the wall was exposed and most of this was broken by the insertion of a Wavin pipe. Its top was exposed at 0.31m below the surface of the concrete deck and it stood approximately 1m higher than the western portion. The intact portion of the wall face was exposed for a height of 0.9m and a length of just over 1m. It was vertical and of random rubble limestone construction. The wall was aligned perpendicular to the city wall and appeared to have been incorporated into its rubble core. At its west side a number of concrete blocks were built up against it all of which was bonded into the western concrete pillar. The level of disturbance significantly limited interpretation of the wall but the exposed masonry supports Hurley’s hypothesis that Wall 2 predates the city wall and was incorporated into its rubble core.

Further work will be undertaken during the proposed renovation of the park and archaeological monitoring of groundworks will be carried out.

Image caption: Outer face of city wall showing earlier battered portion in foreground and later vertical face to left, looking south-west.

References:

Hurley, M. and Power, D. (1981) The Medieval Town Wall of Cork, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol. 86.

Hurley, M. (1985) Excavations of part of the medieval city wall at Grand Parade, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol. 90.