1996:045 - North Main Street/Castle Street, Cork, Cork

Cork Corporation and its Historic Centre Action Plan provided funding to redevelop the drainage system in North Main Street, Castle Street, Kyle Street and Adelaide Street during May to October 1996. The trenches proposed for the new sewerage scheme and for other services were monitored to record archaeological stratigraphy.

In Castle Street part of the remains of the medieval tower of the Queen's Castle was found. This was at the east of the street, at the southern part of the east entrance to the medieval walled port. Parts of the medieval defence walls were evident immediately to the north of the castle. Portions of the medieval quay wall were also uncovered in this street; these represent the wall at the north of the channel which runs under Castle Street and which divided the North Island and the South Island of Cork City. The walls of eighteenth/nineteenth-century buildings, including those of two cellars, were also uncovered.

The northern part of North Main Street from the junction with Kyle Street was excavated. The stratigraphy throughout this portion of the street was similar: several strata of medieval road-metalling and street surfaces, sometimes associated with organic debris. These layers were dated to the thirteenth/fourteenth centuries by the ceramic finds, which included Redcliffe ware, Saintonge and Cork local wares. Other finds included leather and faunal remains. Remains of the medieval drainage system were also seen under some of the medieval street surfaces.

Near the junction of both Kyle Street and Adelaide Street with North Main Street a single wall was uncovered. Each wall ran in a north/south direction. These walls may be the remains of buildings which fronted these streets prior to the street-widening scheme in the nineteenth century.