County: Cork Site name: YOUGHAL: 54 Main Street North
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO067-064---- Licence number: 03E1699
Author: Daniel Noonan, The Archaeology Company
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 610389m, N 578047m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.954414, -7.848849
A pre-development building assessment and testing was carried out at 54 North Main Street, Youghal, Co. Cork. The property is situated within the zone of archaeological potential for Youghal, SMR 67:29(01), and is the site of a demolished urban tower-house, historically known as ‘The Magazine’.
No. 54 is a two-bay, three-storey over ground floor retail, end-of-terrace building, sited on a large, rectangular plot that at the rear incorporates the former garden of the property to the south. The building assessment concluded that the north wall of the main building is surviving medieval fabric of the tower-house. The tower-house was demolished in 1835 and the north wall reused in a reduced state for the new works. Examination of the north boundary wall of the yard to the rear of the property identified two phases of construction. The latest was 19th-century construction associated with the 1835 works. The earlier fabric is more substantial and contains an infilled late medieval fireplace at first-floor level.
Four trenches were mechanically opened and finished by hand in the areas of proposed ground disturbance. Trenches 1–3 were excavated inside the existing ground floor of the building. Trench 4 was excavated to the west of an existing two-storey toilet block, the site of the proposed two-storey stairwell. Trenches 1 and 2 both uncovered substantial remains of the lower courses of the south and north walls, respectively, of the demolished tower-house. The foundation courses uncovered suggest that the walls were approximately 2m thick at the bottom. The findings from Trench 3 were inconclusive and suggest that the south-west corner of the tower-house was removed and a new masonry footing for the south wall was constructed as part of the 19th-century works. Trench 4 uncovered a layer of probable archaeological significance 0.6m beneath the floor level of a demolished 19th-century bakery in the rear yard.
The recognition of the medieval fireplace and fabric in the north boundary wall is a significant finding of standing medieval domestic architecture in Youghal. A substantial fireplace at first-floor level suggests the former presence of a substantial building. The relationship between this building and the tower-house is unknown.
It was recommended that the removal of the 19th-century boundary wall that is tied into the medieval fabric be carried out under archaeological direction. This work was carried out; no further archaeological material was uncovered. The masonry was preserved in situ.
Birr Technology Centre, Mill Island, Birr, Co. Offaly
