County: Cork Site name: Carrignafoy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO087-109---- Licence number: 16E0618
Author: Tony Cummins
Site type: Vicinity of 18th-century fort
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 580878m, N 566776m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.852865, -8.277571
Test trenching was undertaken within a proposed housing development site on a steep hillside above an 18th-century harbour fortification, known as Cove Fort (CO087-109----), located on the eastern outskirts of Cobh town. The fort site now contains the modern offices of the Cork Harbour Commisioners and a Titanic memorial garden. The proposed development site was depicted as a part of a vacant Ordnance Ground on the first edition 6-inch OS map and was subsequently in use as an ancillary barracks, known as the Belmont Huts, during the late 19th and 20th centuries. The remaining 20th-century corrugated-iron barrack structures were demolished in 2005 in advance of an approved housing development that did not proceed. There were no archaeological investigations required as part of the grant of planning for that development. The site now comprises an overgrown plot dominated by two artificial terraces created by excavation into the hillside.
Test trenching demonstrated that ground levels within the site had been extensively reduced down into natural subsoil during the creation of the terraces and then by site clearance works during the stalled development in 2005. A metal-detecting survey (Licence 16R0217) revealed extensive spreads of dumped modern material throughout the site. The concrete bases of demolished sheds in the north end of the site were exposed and these will be sealed and retained in situ as part of the proposed development.
c/o John Cronin and Associates, St. Oran’s Road, Buncrana, Co. Donegal
