2001:154 - CORK: Cornmarket Street, Cork

Excavation for the Cork Main Drainage Scheme continued within the zone of archaeological potential from March to November 2001. The works this year centred on only one street, Cornmarket Street, which lies to the east of the medieval walled city of Cork. Two trenches were opened, one on the east and one on the west side of the street. The trenches were subdivided into 27 units each c. 7m long. When each unit was excavated and recorded the new sewer and water pipes were installed.

Cornmarket Street was once an open channel flanking the north-eastern portion of the medieval city wall, while a marsh lay to the east. The east marsh was first reclaimed in the later 17th century, when the new quay walls and an encircling walkway, ‘The Walkeabout’ were laid out. This was linked to the walled city by a new bridge adjacent to the Queen’s Castle. The bridge was defended by a bastioned fortification on the east side. The first attempt to fill the channel occurred in the early part of the 18th century, when the city’s new Cornmarket was erected at the south end on newly made ground.

Three sections of the former quay wall were uncovered in the course of the works. The first was a 6.95m length of the ‘Potatoe Quay Wall’ (sic), 10.6m east of the junction with Kyle Street on the west side of Cornmarket Street. This wall was c. 0.4m wide, stood to a height of 1–1.45m and survived to 0.95m below the modern road surface. The wall, orientated north–south, was constructed of lime-mortared green and red sandstone and limestone. The position of the wall correlates with the cartographic evidence from the early 18th century depicting a potato market in the area.

Further south along the west side of the street, a 2.25m north-west/south-east length of quay wall was uncovered. It lay 1m below the road surface, was 1.4m in width and stood to a height of between 1.6m (north face) and 1.9m (south face). This wall was of eight courses and was composed of limestone and red sandstone blocks. The bottom two courses had an ope (0.6m x 0.5m) which probably functioned as a drain. This portion of wall shows the possible limit of the first attempt to fill in the channel in the early 18th century and allow the construction of the Cornmarket at the southern, Castle Street end.

The third section of quay wall was uncovered at the east side of the street, c. 9.5m south of Little Market Street. A 4.6m north–south length was located 0.75m below the present ground level in the west side of the cutting. It was c. 0.5m wide and stood to a height of 1.75m. At the north end the wall was orientated north-west/south-east for a length of 1.65m and it continued beyond the west baulk. It consisted of nine to ten courses of limestone and green and red sandstone blocks bonded with lime mortar. The southern end was destroyed by modern services. The wall is probably a remnant of Newenham’s (Newman’s) Quay, which stretched from the Cornmarket to the North Channel of the River Lee.

Throughout the course of the works on Cornmarket Street, parts of the east and west walls of the central culvert were uncovered. When the quays became obsolete the channel was culverted in the late 17th/early 18th century. The culvert consisted of a vaulted stone roof of mortar-bonded red and green sandstone. Towards the south-western end of Cornmarket Street, a possible supporting arch for this culvert was uncovered. It was c. 0.3m below the modern road surface, 1m wide (north–south), 0.65m long and stood to a height of 1.5m. The upper four courses contained a mix of yellow and red sandstone and limestone. The arch appeared to be a later addition or reinforcement to the red sandstone arch.

At the south-eastern limit of the excavation, a rough limestone and sandstone wall and associated organic layer were uncovered. The wall was on the west side of the cutting and was uncovered c. 0.8m below present ground level. It was orientated north–south and exposed for a length of 7m. It had an average width of 0.5m and stood to a height of 1.1m. It comprised four to five regular courses of limestone bonded by lime mortar. These lay on top of an earlier, badly damaged section of wall, with only five courses of sandstone. This section was clay-bonded and stood on top of a very compact black/grey organic layer which measured c. 2.7m north–south, was 0.55m thick and was uncovered c. 2m below the present ground level. The finds from this layer comprised compacted twigs, reeds, rushes and straw, scraps of leather, animal bone, shells and sherds of post-medieval pottery. The east wall of the north–south-orientated culvert had destroyed the southern end of the wall, but enough evidence was gathered to speculate that it might in fact be the inner face of ‘The Walkeabout’, a feature depicted on mid-17th-century maps as a path lying behind the new quay wall that encircled the marsh.

Albert Quay House, Albert Quay, Cork