County: Cork Site name: CORK: Grand Parade
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Maurice Hurley, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 567157m, N 571662m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.896147, -8.477199
The Pfitzer Chemical Corporation offered a grant towards the cost of excavation of an area within the medieval city which was considered to be endangered by future development. An area, 22m x 12m, adjacent to the city wall was excavated and a comprehensive stratigraphy ranging from the late 12th/early 13th century to the late 14th century was exposed. The earliest levels consisted of 'made ground' (fill) above which portions of houses and alleyways survived. The finds include Saintonge, Ham Green, Bristol and Redcliff wares; iron objects including five keys; leather shoes and a decorated scabbard; well preserved woollen fabric and an amber necklace.
Cork Corporation decided to preserve a portion of the medieval wall of Cork as a feature in the new city centre amenity park. As part of this development funding was provided to excavate an area 22m X 5m inside the city wall and adjacent to the 'Pfitzer' excavation.
A second wall (wall 2), pre-dating the city wall, was uncovered at a depth of 0.75m below the top of the latter. It ran at right angles to the city wall and the archaeological stratigraphy exposed on opposite sides of the wall was markedly different. On the northern side lay sedimentary layers naturally deposited by water. The city wall was subsequently built on this sediment. On the southern side of wall 2, layers of human occupation debris dating primarily from the mid 13th to the late 14th century were exposed. The finds include imported pottery, organic objects and a well preserved bronze candlestick.
