2001:252 - DERRY: 26–28 Bishop Street, Derry

The site is located to the rear of 26–28 Bishop Street, Derry, and has maximum dimensions of 31m north–south by 15.5m. It lies within the historic Derry town walls, in the immediate vicinity of a 6th-century monastery, late 16th-century garrison camps, St Columb’s Cathedral and a possible Cromwellian citadel. Cartographic evidence shows that the site was not built on until the early 19th century, until then being illustrated as an area of garden or open ground.

A site assessment carried out in 2000 had indicated the survival of in situ archaeological deposits that would be removed during development. Excavations revealed that the subsoil sloped significantly to the east and south. The site, however, was levelled up with a series of mid-17th-to mid-18th-century soils, as dated by the pottery recovered. These soils sealed several small pits and spreads and underlay a well-constructed cobbled surface. Several stone and mortar walls were uncovered cutting through these soils, likely to be associated with the building illustrated on the 1834 map. The cobbles which lay to the east of these walls may have formed part of an open courtyard associated with the building. 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 those areas traditionally used as gardens.

As 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 in the immediate vicinity of the site would have been 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. On the current evidence it is possible that the deposits are directly associated with 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 the 17th-century houses which fronted onto Bishop Street.

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