2023:085 - Rampart House, The Ramparts, Townplots, Kinsale, Cork

Archaeological testing of a proposed residential development at a site to the rear of Rampart House, The Ramparts, Townplots, Kinsale, County Cork was undertaken in order to satisfy a request for further information from Cork County Council (CCC ref. no. 22/6121). The testing programme, which was carried out on 23 and 24 January 2023, comprised the excavation of three linear test trenches, totalling 100m in length, across the areas earmarked for development within the site boundary. Nothing of archaeological significance was revealed in any of the excavated trenches.

The testing programme revealed evidence of garden activity in the form of two sub-circular stone arrangements (probable kerbing features) which may have surrounded a tree, shrub or garden bed. The historic OS maps depict a formal garden layout in this area during the mid-19^th century and the ceramic assemblage which was recovered from within, and surrounding, the revealed features would correspond with an early to mid-19^th-century date for their formation. Based on the ceramic and stratigraphic evidence revealed within all the three excavated trenches, the site was subject to both infilling and ground truncation at some point in the mid to late 19^th-century. This was undertaken in order to create level lawn areas in both the upper and lower garden terraces. Local information indicates that the lower lawn area was used as a tennis court during the 20^th century. The levelling of the lower garden area, in particular, may have been undertaken to facilitate this usage.