1988:42 - DERRY: 32 Bishop Street Within, Derry

Brief investigations were conducted on this development site in February 1988. The site, immediately inside the early 17th-century town wall and adjacent to Bishop's gate, was a 17th-century property described in 1738 as the site of 'one old slate house, one storey high and garrets'. The area also lay within the medieval ecclesiastical/urban nucleus of the pre-Plantation town.

Demolition of the modern buildings exposed the inner face of a length of the town wall. Two ovens and adjacent fireplaces built into the wall face were probably originally part of two structures, built 30ft.(9. 14m) long against the wall face and separated by a 25ft (7.62m) wide open cobbled area. Shadows of stone walls, built gable-end on to Bishop Street Within, were also noted. Recent cellaring and a high level of subsoil resulted in an absence of archaeological deposits below ground and it is possible only to infer that the structural remains are of 18th-century or earlier date. No artefacts were recovered.