1998:069 - CORK SCHOOLS PROJECT, Grattan Street, Cork, Cork

Monitoring of all groundworks was undertaken in compliance with the archaeological planning condition. The development site lies within the walled medieval city of Cork, to the immediate west of Cross Court Lane, which runs at right angles to North Main Street. The street pattern of medieval Cork was linear. It was based on the north-south axis of North and South Main Streets. Lanes ran at right angles to give access to individual properties and to the town wall (J. Bradley et al., Urban archaeological survey of Cork (1985)).

The ground disturbance work was divided into two phases. The first consisted of the excavation of nine piles by a small piling rig. In general the piles were 9–10m deep. A stone obstruction was encountered by the rig at a depth of c. 4m in the south-east corner and across the central line of the site. This meant that three additional pile holes had to be excavated. All of the soil that came to the surface with the auger was examined, and a number of artefacts were recovered. Four soil horizons were recorded. C1, the upper horizon, was a grey, sandy silt with frequent inclusions of slate, brick, glass and sherds of modern pottery. C2 was a black silt with occasional inclusions of oyster shells; the bones of mature cattle, young pig and sheep were recorded. C3 was a brown silt with frequent inclusions of wood. C4 was a grey clay.

The second phase consisted of removing 0.4m of C1 from the entire area of the site. The ground-beams, pile caps and drains were laid within this depth. The surface of the brick foundations of the school building that had been demolished before the commencement of works was uncovered when C1 was partially removed.

Clover Hill, Mallow, Co. Cork