County: Cork Site name: CORK: Broad Lane, Blackpool
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1321
Author: Daniel Noonan, The Archaeology Company
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 567283m, N 573225m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.910210, -8.475507
Testing of the archaeological potential of a brownfield redevelopment site at Broad Lane, Great William O’Brien Street, Blackpool, Cork, was carried out. The Blackpool area has been the site of extensive industrial activity since the 18th century and several areas of industrial archaeology were uncovered during the construction of the nearby Blackpool Bypass. The development site is near SMR 74:116, the late 18th-century Watercourse Distillery.
Seven trenches were mechanically excavated. Trenches 1–3 investigated Area A, the western side of the site, Trenches 4 and 5 investigated Area B, the site of bungalows 1–3, and Trenches 6 and 7 investigated Area C, the east side of the site.
Area A cuts substantially into the hillside to the west of the site. Trenches 1 and 2 bottomed quickly onto bedrock. Trench 3 was in an area that was previously quarried and had been backfilled with 19th-century rubble. No finds or features of archaeological interest were uncovered in Area A.
Area B contained the make-up fills of 18th- to 19th-century date associated with the construction of the rectangular structure and the later raised area to the west. No finds or features of archaeological significance were uncovered in Area B.
The earliest material uncovered in Area C was the late 18th- to early 19th-century garden soil horizon uncovered in Trench 6. The later brick foundation courses of the retaining wall for the lower building that housed the former display area of the furniture centre that occupied the site were uncovered in Trench 7.
No finds or features of archaeological significance were uncovered during the assessment.
Birr Technology Centre, Mill Island, Birr, Co. Offaly
