County: Cork Site name: Buttevant
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO017-053012- Licence number: E004662; C000740
Author: Eamonn Cotter
Site type: Town defences
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 554329m, N 609019m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.231018, -8.668572
Buttevant is a medieval town, founded in 1234. The first reference to town walls dates to 1317. A length of wall along the eastern boundary of the town, close to the Awbeg River, is believed to be of medieval origin, though it has been much repaired and modified. The local community plan to develop a plot of waste ground between the wall and the river as a public amenity. In conjunction with that work they have repaired and conserved this length of wall.
A small-scale excavation was carried out along the inner face of part of the wall, where raised ground level had caused the wall to lean outwards. Seven sherds of pottery dating to the 17th-19th centuries were recovered from the topsoil. Otherwise no archaeology was found.
Outside the wall four pits, each 1.5m x 1m and 0.8m deep, were excavated to insert steel buttresses to support the wall at weak points. No archaeology was found in these pits.
Ballynanelagh, Rathcormac, Co. Cork
