2000:0160 - DERRY: 26–28 Bishop's Street Within, Derry

The site is located to the rear of 26–28 Bishop’s Street, Derry, and has maximum dimensions of 31m north–south x 15.5m. The proposed development consists of a two-storey office block situated to the very rear of the site behind a carpark and landscaped area. Formation level will be at 1m below present ground level, and the density of the foundation beams would result in the destruction of any archaeological deposits that may have survived on the site. The area of the site is archaeologically sensitive, lying not only within the walled city but also within the immediate environs of the 6th-century monastery and the possible 17th-century Cromwellian citadel.

Six trenches were opened by machine. This was stopped when in situ archaeological deposits were uncovered, and these areas were then investigated by hand. Present ground level is at 29.4m OD.

Excavation has revealed at least two phases of significant archaeological activity on the site. Phase 1 is probably 17th/18th-century soils, up to 1m deep, and Phase 2 is a probable early 19th-century house foundation.

Cartographic evidence clearly shows that the site was not built on until the early 19th century, being illustrated as an area of garden. The wall uncovered in Trench 2 cut through the 17th/18th-century soils, suggesting at least a post-18th-century date for it. It is not clear what the building on the 1834 map was used for, but it is likely to have been a house. Space within the walled city was very limited by the 19th century, and large areas were beginning to be developed outside the walls, as well as in those areas traditionally used as gardens.

If the site was not developed until the 19th century, the extensive 17th/18th-century in situ deposits must be the result of land use of a temporary nature. Several phases of Derry’s history within the immediate vicinity of the site were of such a temporary nature. The garrisons of 1566 and 1600 were based around the 6th-century monastery in the immediate vicinity of the site. Further archaeological investigations may uncover deposits dating to these periods. On the current evidence it is possible that the deposits are directly associated to the time of the Siege of Derry, 1688–9, when every available inch of space would have been used to accommodate over 30,000 citizens and 7000 soldiers. It is equally possible that the build-up of 17th/18th-century material is the result of the dumping of occupation material from the possible 17th-century citadel to the immediate south of the site or from the 17th-century houses that fronted onto Bishop’s Street.

Full archaeological investigation would further resolve these deposits.

Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ