1999:096 - CORK: City Carpark, Main Street South, Cork

Cork Corporation is anxious to take the initiative to ensure that an adequately funded, adequately resourced and adequately scheduled excavation takes place on this site, which is regarded as of the utmost importance. It was felt that some precise information on the physical preservation of the site would highlight the issues. The developer, Kenny Homes Ltd, agreed to finance and facilitate the testing in conjunction with the services of Cork Corporation.

The site is potentially one of the most important archaeological sites in Cork City. The Viking settlement in Cork probably occurred in this area (Hurley 1998). Recent excavations by Mary O'Donnell at Tuckey Street have uncovered wooden structures of early 12th-century date at c. 4m below present ground level (Excavations 1997, 12, 97E0040). The structures occurred below a deep layer of estuarine silt, at a level at which previous excavations in Cork were suspended. At Hanover Street, houses of mid-12th-century date were excavated by Rose Cleary in 1996 within 2m of the modern surface (Excavations 1996, 11, 96E0128), and more than 2m of material remained unexcavated beneath that level. All of this points to the significance of the South Main Street area as an archaeological resource for Cork of comparable importance to sites at Arundel Square in Waterford and Fishamble Street, High Street, Essex Street etc. in Dublin.

The site was investigated on 28 and 29 June 1999. Two trenches were excavated to pinpoint the location of the medieval city wall. A third trench was opened to investigate a stone structure lying close to the surface, in order to facilitate the positioning of a trial-bore.

In addition four trial-boreholes were inserted to determine the nature and depth of the archaeological stratigraphy and the underlying geological composition of the site.

The city wall is between 5.6m and 5.7m to the north of the present quay wall. This corresponds to the position as shown on the OS map of 1869. The area outside of the city wall is of limited archaeological importance as it is composed mostly of estuarine silt.

In this area the archaeological stratigraphy survives to c. 0.7m of the modern surface and continues to a depth of over 4m. Houses are likely to be represented by stone walls in the upper levels, overlying organic layers representing timber and wattle houses in the lower levels. Overall, preservation of organic material appears to be good.

The natural slope of the ground is from west to east (i.e. beneath the archaeological stratigraphy). The layers continue to c. 4.3m below the modern surface on the eastern side, but much of the stratigraphy in the eastern part of the site appears to be made up of fill and midden material.

Reference
Hurley, M.F. 1998 Viking Age towns: archaeological evidence from Waterford and Cork. In M.A. Monk and J. Sheehan (eds), Early medieval Munster: archaeology, history and society. Cork.

City Hall, Cork