2007:244 - KYRL’S STREET/KYRL’S QUAY, Cork, Cork

Three test-trenches were excavated at the site of a proposed mixed-use development at Kyrl’s Street and Kyrl’s Quay, Cork. The site is both inside and outside the line of the medieval city wall at the north-east of the walled medieval city. It is directly south and east of a site at Kyrl’s Quay/North Main Street excavated in 1992 (Hurley 1995, 1996), where a 60m stretch of the city wall was recorded and preserved. An exposed segment of the city wall is visible in the north wall of the proposed development site.
The medieval city wall was recorded in two locations. In Trench 1 the splayed north side of a c. 2m ope, possibly a gateway in the wall, was recorded; the south side of the ope had been cut by modern drains. In Trench 3 a 45-degree turn, from a north-west/south-east to a roughly north–south axis, was recorded in the city wall.
The top of the city wall is at levels between 0.3m and 1.05m below the modern ground surface; the wall is c. 2m wide and a minimum of 2.2m high. The base of the wall was not seen nor was it possible to record whether it is battered. The inner and outer face of the wall was seen in Trench 1, while only the upper part of the inner face was seen in Trench 3. The wall is of coursed mortared limestone and sandstone construction and the rubble core is both mortar- and clay-bonded.
Inside the city wall the stratigraphy beneath the modern paving consists of layers of gravel, stony clay and rubble (made ground), 1.2–2m thick, over layers of introduced clay. Five mortared rubble walls and two stone drains of post-medieval date were recorded in this area. Thick layers of introduced clay inside the city wall are similar to those recorded at other sites in Cork city and were used to raise the ground level above the tidal range. Sherds of 13th- and 14th-century pottery were recovered from the clays.
Outside the city wall made ground, i.e. dumped layers of clay, gravel and rubble, were present to 1.8–2m below ground level. From cartographic evidence it is known that this area was reclaimed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Possible estuarine clay, grey/black in colour, was seen at 2m below ground level. A stone drain was built against the outer face of the city wall in Trench 1.
References
Hurley, M.F. 1995 Excavations in Cork city: Kyrl’s Quay/North Main Street and the Grand Parade (Part 1). JCAHS 100, 47–90.
Hurley, M.F. 1996 Excavations in Cork city: Kyrl’s Quay/North Main Street and the Grand Parade (Part 2). JCAHS 101, 26–63.