County: Cork Site name: 31–34 Cornmarket Street, Cork
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO074–122 Licence number: 05e0126
Author: Deborah Sutton, Sheila Lane & Associates, Deanrock Business Park, Togher, Cork.
Site type: Urban, post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 567166m, N 572081m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.899920, -8.477099
Excavations carried out on a large site on the east side of Cornmarket Street, Cork, were completed in 2005 (Excavations 2005, No. 223). Seven areas were opened and excavated. It was proposed to monitor the bulk removal of any remaining deposits on the site. This work took place in early 2006.
Two adjacent wells were exposed close to the northern perimeter of the north-eastern part of the site. Both wells were exposed in estuarine deposits which were effectively propping adjacent buildings and the wells could only be excavated from the south. The cut for the southernmost well was wide (2.04m) and extended down through the estuarine muds and for c. 0.3m into the natural gravels. A stave-built barrel had been placed in the base of the cut on the natural gravels. The barrel stood on two short planks levelled with small timber wedges. Loosely packed angular limestones filled the gap between the barrel and the well cut. Faint metallic colouring on the external face of two of the barrel staves suggests that there may have been a metal hoop binding the barrel. Contiguous bands of withies, the majority bound with narrow bark strips, encircled the barrel externally from the base to within 0.07m of the top of the staves. The oak barrel (internal diameter at widest point: 0.62m) comprised twenty staves, c. 0.84m long, each cut with an internal groove at the base and top to hold the bevelled planks, five of which made up the base. Small holes (25mm diameter) cut in the staves may have been either for rope binding (of which there was no other evidence) or simply to allow the water to filter into the barrel. Several of the timbers had small holes at the top or base of the staves, some with tiny pegs in situ. The barrel was empty, except for a thin deposit of fine gravel and tiny brick fragments contained within a silty deposit at the base. A second bottomless barrel placed above the first created the well shaft, but this collapsed prior to excavation.
The second well, exposed less than 1m to the north, had been backfilled. Randomly placed stones surrounded a barrel (0.6m diameter) within the well cut. A hollow timber pump stick was noted within the filled well shaft. The weight of the bank to the north caused the whole structure to collapse prior to excavation.
