2006:315 - Lee Maltings/prospect row, Cork, Cork

The excavation aim was to determine if subsurface remains of a millrace were extant in a complex of 19th-century maltings. The excavation trench was located within the footprint of part of a proposed building, at the intersection of the millrace and a footbridge as indicated on historic maps. The top of the millrace wall was located c. 0.2–0.3m beneath the modern ground surface. The wall was 0.5–1.1m to the east of the location on the historical mapping and was angled rather than straight.
The wall was irregularly coursed, mortar-bonded limestone blocks. These varied in size from 0.1 to 0.5m in length by 0.1 to 0.25m in height. The wall thickness was 0.6–0.7m and the wall was built in a construction trench that extended for 0.2m beyond the eastern edge of the top of the wall. The wall was battered from the base to the top and the angle of incline was 6° from the base to the top.
The footing for the footbridge survived at the north end of the trench as two niches in the wall with an intermediary distance of c. 0.8m. These niches presumably housed the supporting framework or trusses for a timber bridge. The niches were c. 0.8m wide and the southern niche was damaged on the south side.
A ceramic pipe with a diameter of c. 2m was recorded on the south side of the exposed wall, close to the section where realignment occurred on the line of the wall. This appears to have been an original feature and was integral to the wall construction. The pipe drained into the millrace. Three other pipes were recorded in the wall and appeared to post-date wall construction. Pipe 2 was at the northern end and the associated pipe trench cut through the stonework of the wall. Pipes 3 and 4 were within the overburden over the millrace wall and the trench for Pipe 3 cut into the top of the wall.
A brick setting with two concrete slabs atop was recorded to the south of the wall. The brick was cut through by the trench for Pipe 3. The bricks were red brick and may have formed part of a floor for the building shown on the 1934 edition of the OS map. Limestone flags were recorded on the north end of the wall. These may be either a repair to the millrace wall or part of a later structure. The trench for Pipe 2 was below these and pre-dated the insertion of the flags.
Two timber piles were exposed during excavation. These occurred to the west of the line of the millrace wall and may be unrelated to it. The piles were 4.3m apart and the southern pile was 0.25m west of the millrace wall and that to the north was 0.2m west of the wall. The north pile stood to a height of 1m above the base of the trench and the southern protruded from the trench infill for 0.1m. Both piles were c. 1.2m below the top of the millrace wall. Their function is obscure. A timber plank was exposed at the northern end of the trench. This was left in situ and appeared to abut the millrace wall and again be unrelated to the wall.
The infill layers of the millrace are post-1903 and comprise several lenses of modern fill. These included hardcore, stone/brick construction debris and material from demolished buildings, possibly those to the east where kilns were once housed. This material contained firebricks similar to those used in ovens.