2008:212 - St Patrick’s Street/Academy Street/Emmet Place/Bowling Green Street/Faulkner’s Lane, Cork, Cork

The proposed development site is located to the north of Patrick’s Street, c. 200m east of the medieval core of the city and within the zone of archaeological potential for Cork city (CO074–122). A Queen Anne house (CO074–108) stands within the development site. Cork city is constructed on a series of marshy islands and this area was reclaimed from the 17th century onwards and the surrounding river channels were infilled. Testing of this site was carried out in 2007 and exposed deposits of dredged muds and stratified rubble and soil deliberately dumped on the estuarine muds to reclaim the area (Excavations 2007, No. 245). Monitoring of the bulk removal of material on the site exposed layers of organic material beneath the estuarine muds at a depth of –1.928m OD and spread over an area 21.5m east–west by 4m. Excavation of these woody deposits, which comprised leaves, twigs, hazelnuts and decayed tree debris, indicated that they were layered with fine sands and appeared to have accumulated naturally in a tidal backwater channel. A struck flint was recovered from the surface of these deposits but there was no further indication that the material had been laid down manually. A worked timber, embedded in the upper levels of the woody material, has been dendrochronologically dated to 76569. Similar deposits were noted in the adjacent development site to the east.