County: Cork Site name: 93–97 Main Street North, Cork
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO074-122 Licence number: 11E0011
Author: Avril Purcell
Site type: Medieval and post-medieval deposits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 567038m, N 572109m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.900162, -8.478973
The site comprises a large open yard with a partial concrete surface. Buildings Nos 95 and 97 remain upstanding, opening onto the eastern side of North Main Street; the other buildings that occupied the site were destroyed by fire in 2008 and their remains were subsequently demolished.
Three test trenches were excavated across the site, revealing post-medieval deposits underlying substantial rubble deposits. A medieval deposit was uncovered for a length of 3.5m within Trench 1 in the north-east of the site. It comprised a spread of dark brown-black silty clay and yielded a single sherd of Saintonge pottery. It was revealed at a height of 2.12m OD, i.e. 0.95m below the existing ground surface in this part of the site. In Trench 2 a single sherd of Saintonge pottery was revealed within what appeared to be a secondary context, given the disturbed nature of the deposit. Trench 3 contained very substantial rubble deposits. A number of walls, some of which were robbed out, were revealed in the trenches; some of these represent former property boundaries. The design and layout of the proposed development has not been finalised.
Lane Purcell Archaeology, Deanrock Business Park, Togher, Cork
