1997:037 - CORK: North Main Street/Castle Street/ Adelaide Street/Liberty Street/Daunt Square/Paradise Place, Cork

Excavation for the Cork Main Drainage Scheme resumed in January 1997 and continued until November 1997. The scheme will recommence in February 1998. Trenches were excavated for sewage pipes and other services within the archaeological zone of the medieval city.

Two portions of the circular tower of the medieval Queen's Castle were discovered in 1996 (Excavations 1996, 12) and in 1997 a third portion was uncovered. The medieval quay wall was seen in three locations at the southern end of North Main Street for a total length of c. 12m. A corner of a limestone structure dating to the medieval period was located on Paradise Place; its exposed length measured 1.1m from north to south and its height was exposed for 0.5m. It is in the vicinity of the site of the medieval Paradise Castle.

In North Main Street parts of a possible raft foundation for a wooden road were excavated which were dendrochronologically dated to the 12th century. These timbers may have originated from structures in the South Island of the city, where earlier settlement took place, or they may represent a 12th-century suburb on the North Island. Alongside this medieval road lay probable fronts of timber houses which were also dated to the 12th century.

Part of the west wall of a tower-house fronting the old street was found at the southern end of North Main Street. It was tentatively dated to the 15th/16th century. It was exposed for a length of 4.5m from north to south and its height survived for 1.5m. This limestone wall has a footing and also overlies an earlier wall constructed of sandstone and limestone; the latter was exposed for a length of 9m from north to south and for a height of 1.36m. The wall of the tower-house was associated with a limestone-paved road surface, a cambered kerb used as a drain, and a footpath. Immediately to the north of these remains lay two other lengths of contemporary stone walls of buildings fronting the street for a distance of 4.5m from north to south; these had associated stone drains. Further south of the tower-house another section of street frontage, built of stone, measured 0.85m in length from north to south, 0.85m in width and 1.3m in height.

A double-arched culvert, 10m in width, dating from the 18th/19th century was recorded in Liberty Street; it lay in an east-west direction extending from Liberty Street under the buildings on Paradise Place to Daunt Square. This is the line of the original channel which divided the north and south islands of the city in medieval times.

City Hall, Cork