1999:129 - DERRY: Millennium Theatre, Derry

The 17th-century walls (SMR 14:33) surrounding the core of the modern City of Londonderry are one of Northern Ireland's most important historical monuments. The walled city was largely built between the years 1614 and 1619 as part of the wider Plantation of Ulster. The ground-plan of the city defences, envisaged as a strong wall with outer ditch, was trodden out in 1613, and the ditch is known to have been completed by 1616. The material excavated from the ditch and scarping activity was used to create an earthen rampart around the circuit of the defences. The wall was then built on and against the front of this rampart. When completed, the rampart, was said to have been 12ft thick within the city, with a 24ft-high, 6ft-thick wall on the outside. Certain encroachments were made on the walls in the vicinity of the Millennium Theatre site in the north-east of the city during the 18th century, and by 1853 most of the Water Bastion, which faced onto Foyle Street, had been removed. More recent times have seen the classification of the walls as a historic monument, and, under the guardianship of the Environment and Heritage Service, a major programme of repair and conservation has been undertaken.

The site lay in the north-east of the walled city at the proposed location for the Millennium Theatre Project. Initially, assessment excavations by Stephen Gilmore (Excavations 1998, 24–5) and a detailed paper search were undertaken on the site. These showed that any significant archaeology was restricted to the locality of known possible 17th/18th-century cellars (SMR 14:35). Accordingly, before the main construction began, these cellars were encased beneath a concrete raft to ensure their preservation.

During the main construction phase, however, the rear retaining wall of the city defences proved to be of too poor build to cope with the nearby disturbance. One 25m length of this wall became sufficiently weakened as to require major repair. The wall was constructed in the 19th century and has been slightly repaired on several occasions since then, making it of little or no archaeological significance. It was originally built to retain the remains of the city's 17th-century rampart. Therefore, any major repair work to the wall was likely to disturb potential archaeological deposits. The subsequent repair work was carried out under archaeological supervision after the completion of a two-week explorative rescue excavation.

Five trenches were excavated along the stretch of damaged walling, and evidence was recovered of the 17th-century earthen rampart. The excavation showed the rampart to have originally been 7–8m wide and 2–3m high. It contained potsherds of 17th-century date and sealed an old ground surface probably also dating to the 17th century, on the basis of an associated potsherd.

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