County: Cork Site name: YOUGHAL: 1–2 South Main Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0190
Author: Tony Cummins for Archaeological Services Unit, University College Cork
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 610531m, N 577845m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.952599, -7.846791
Three test-trenches were excavated in advance of an extension to an existing building, in an area next to the town wall, which forms the north boundary of the property. The stratigraphy to the north-east consisted of a 0.8m-thick limestone rubble layer, in a sandy soil matrix, with occasional animal bones and oyster shells. This overlay a purple shale deposit, 0.2m deep. Beneath this was a sterile, yellow boulder clay, 1.2m below modern ground level.
The foundations of the town wall were exposed at the north-west end of the trench and lay on the boulder clay. They were composed of uncoursed sandstone bonded with earth and lime-mortar. There was no trace of a foundation trench in this area. A 19th-century cobbled surface was the only feature revealed in the test-trench 6m to the south-west. There were no archaeological features to the rear of the property (south-west end), where a layer of sterile, purple shale, 0.75m deep, was found to overlie bedrock.
