2017:366 - DERRY CITY: Templemore, Derry

Nothing of an archaeological was uncovered within the areas of The Diamond, Magazine Street, Magazine Street Upper, Palace Street, Society Street, Butcher Street, Unionhall Street, Bank Place and Bishop Street Within during work on the sewer replacement scheme.

Scheduled Monument consent was granted to allow the excavation of the pipe trench through Bishops Gate, at the south-west end of Bishop Street Within. During the excavation of this section the remains of a schist wall and earthen bank were noted in the section of the pipe trench. As this was located to the south-west, and outside the line of the current walls, this may have formed part of an earlier, pre-Plantation, line of defensive embankment; possibly relating to the period of the Nine Years War (1594–1603), Sir Henry Docwra’s occupation of Derry. It is also possible that it formed part of the defences around Bishop’s Gate during the siege of 1689.