2008:207 - Mary Street, Cork, Cork

A pre-development test excavation was undertaken on a vacant property at 38 Mary Street in Cork city. The site was scheduled for development as a small-scale apartment complex and was the subject of a planning condition from Cork City Council that required a test excavation to be carried out. The site lies to the south of the medieval centre of Cork and is within the zone of archaeological potential for the city. Mary Street runs north–south, linking George’s Quay to the north with Douglas Street to the south and the development is located on the west side of the street close to George’s Quay and Parliament Bridge. The present streetscape along Mary Street is one of largely late 19th-century terraced houses and the surrounding area is mostly residential in character. The development involved the demolition of commercial buildings and the construction of seven apartments in two separate blocks, one at the east side fronting onto Mary Street and the other at the western limit of the property. The buildings were constructed on columns and the foundations for these were piled.
Three test-trenches were placed east–west and north–south across those areas of the site where maximum ground disturbance was envisaged. The trenches were excavated using a small mechanical excavator with a 1m-wide bucket.
Trench 1 was placed to coincide with a row of pile caps in the northern area of the site. It extended for almost the entire length of the property and was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.5m. Excavation exposed various infill layers and deposits that had accumulated across the site during the 19th and 20th centuries. The layers contained fragments of concrete blocks, red brick, slate and a range of domestic debris including glass and modern delft. Slight traces of a natural sandy clay deposit were noted at the east side of the trench but in most locations modern fill layers were encountered and nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered.
Trench 2 was placed along the southern side of the development and it extended east–west for almost the entire length of the property. The excavation revealed a similar soil profile to that encountered in Trench 1 consisting of various infill deposits containing modern domestic debris. Most areas of the trench did not go beyond the level of this stratum although small pockets of sandy yellow clay began to emerge at the east end close to Mary Street and at a depth of 1.2m. The footing of a short stretch of a stone wall was exposed at the east side of the trench, 13.5m west of the inner edge of the footpath on Mary Street. This feature measured 0.98m in width and extended from the southern limit of the property for a distance of 1.7m, where the termination was observed in Trench 3. The maximum depth of the wall footing was 0.58m and it was constructed from a mixture of medium-sized limestone and red sandstone stones which were set horizontally on each other. Traces of a lime-mortar bonding agent were observed in places. The wall was present less than 0.5m below the existing ground surface and it was surrounded by modern infill in all places. It is interpreted as representing the footing of a relatively modern wall to the rear of former properties fronting on to Mary Street. No other features of archaeological significance were exposed during trenching in this area of the site.
Trench 3 was placed in the central area of the development to the rear of the original buildings that fronted onto Mary Street. It extended from the wall feature exposed in Trench 2 to the southern limit of Trench 1. The wall extended for a length of 0.7m into the trench where it then terminated.
All material recovered during test-trenching was 20th-century in date and no traces of archaeological deposits were exposed. A short length of stone wall was noted at the south-west corner of the site and this was recorded and left in situ. It would appear to be relatively recent in origin, probably representing a boundary wall to the rear of properties fronting on to Mary Street.