County: Cork Site name: CORK: Lady's Well, Lady's Well Hill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 74:62 Licence number: 00E0641
Author: Gina Johnson, c/o City Archaeologist’s Office, Cork Corporation
Site type: Ritual site - holy well
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 569856m, N 570199m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.883152, -8.437851
The area surrounding Lady’s Well is currently being landscaped in a park project initiated in 1996 by local residents in cooperation with Cork Corporation and Murphy’s Brewery. The purpose of the excavation was to locate the site of a holy well, which was associated with a grotto that was demolished in the late 1990s. A two-week excavation was carried out in September 2000 by staff from the City Archaeologist’s Office in cooperation with the Environment Department of Cork Corporation, who funded the project.
Prior to excavation there was no surface trace of the grotto. The location was identified from 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps. An area 6m2 was cleared, by JCB, of an overburden to a depth of c. 1.2m. This revealed the remains of the grotto, which was built of sandstone with the exception of a single quartz block in the lowest course of the south wall. The structure (c. 3m x 3.2m) was infilled with modern rubbish and rubble from the demolition of the grotto and its surrounding modern paving. A ‘split-level’ cement floor was uncovered with a metal basin inserted in the centre of the eastern depression. The basin collected water that flowed through a recess in the east wall. A large limestone slab with a carved central channel had been inserted in the recess to direct the water into the basin. The continuous water flow over the years had eroded the channel to form two separate stones.
Beneath the cement floor a roughly paved layer of sandstone flags surrounded the cast-iron basin, and this level seems to have been the earliest flooring at the well. Some disturbance had occurred during the insertion of a cast-iron drainage pipe in the north-eastern corner of the enclosure. The cast-iron basin may have been a later insertion, possibly at the time that the concrete flooring was laid. Since the brief was to locate the site of the holy well, the lowest level was not excavated and the flags and cast-iron basin were left in situ.
Finds from the excavation comprised mostly modern pottery sherds, with a small amount of 18th-century pottery.
The interior of the well was subsequently backfilled (with the sandstone slabs protected); a new floor level was constructed; and the surrounding walls, i.e. the remains of the grotto, were consolidated. The monument is now incorporated as a historic feature within the park.
Planning Department, City Hall, Cork
