County: Cork Site name: Back Glen, Townplots, Kinsale
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO112-034001 and 112-034002 Licence number: 13E252
Author: Avril Purcell
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 563850m, N 550696m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.707048, -8.522403
A single test trench was excavated along the line of the proposed foundation for a concrete slab on a small cliff terrace. The south-west portion of the trench was mechanically excavated and it was extended by hand at the north-east. A dry-stone, random rubble wall was revealed inside an existing denuded retaining cliff wall. The wall was revealed running the full length of the trench, a distance of 4.6m. The exposed width of the wall was 0.56m, but its full width could not be ascertained as it extended under the overlying wall.
The wall revealed in the trench was found in an area of the town where it is difficult to precisely locate the town wall. The dry-stone wall revealed is an unlikely candidate for the town wall given it is not mortar bonded and was located on a low cliff above estuarine muds and tidal waters. The wall probably dates to the post-medieval period, following the reclamation of Back Glen. The wall will remain preserved in situ.
Lane Purcell Archaeology, 64 Fr Mathew Road, Turner’s Cross, Cork
