County: Cork Site name: CORK: 2 Bishop Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 74:22 Licence number: 00E1094
Author: Mary G. O’Donnell, Archaeological Services Unit, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 566841m, N 571425m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.894004, -8.481767
The site of a proposed development at 2 Bishop Street, Cork, is within the garden to the rear of ‘Carrigbarre’, a three-storey house originally built in the early 18th century. ‘Carrigbarre’ is situated immediately to the west of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral and within the zone of archaeological potential of the historic town. Planning conditions required a test excavation of the site prior to development.
An apartment building is to be built on the north side of the site, within an area measuring c. 36m by 13m. A small test excavation was initially carried out in November 2001. A thick deposit of garden soil containing 18th/19th-century finds was discovered in all excavated trenches but no earlier finds or features were uncovered. Given the proximity of the site to St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, which is traditionally said to be located on the site of the Early Christian monastic site founded by St Finbarr in the 6th century, it was decided to remove the topsoil and garden soil by mechanical excavator over the entire area of the footprint of the building and to manually excavate a portion of the site. Two areas of archaeological interest were uncovered during this process.
The material in the first area consisted of a hearth with an associated spread of ashy material close to the east end of the site. A number of small pits and stake-holes were also associated with the hearth. The date of the hearth and spread was not established but two flint flakes were found in association with the spread.
The second area consisted of a trench c. 1.6m wide and at least 6m long, extending north-west/south-east across the west end of the site. The trench had been cut into subsoil and the fill contained what appeared to be red deer antlers and other horn cores. The date of the trench and fill is not yet clear but it also contained what appeared to be red brick fragments. This means that the trench may be related to many of the garden features associated with the use of ‘Carrigbarre’. Evidence for these was uncovered throughout the garden soil.
