County: Cork Site name: Island Mills, Mill Road, Fermoy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO035-025 Licence number: 20E0383
Author: Ian Russell, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit
Site type: Industrial mill complex
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 581509m, N 598716m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.139991, -8.270134
Excavation was carried out on the site of a proposed development at Island Mills, Mill Road, Fermoy, Co. Cork. The site comprised of lands measuring c. 1.4 hectares, adjacent to and south of the River Blackwater and north of Mill Road. Excavation was carried out of portions of the subsurface remains of Fermoy Mill (CO035-025) that will be impacted upon by the proposed development. Preservation in situ was not possible and following a test trenching programme preservation by record was proposed and agreed upon by Cork County Council.
The site is located within the site of a 19th century Corn-Mill (CO035-025), listed in the Record of Monuments and Places for County Cork (1994), which is also a Protected Structure (RPS 200) listed within Cork County Council Development Plan 2013-2019 and in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH Reg. No. 20821055). The mill was built in 1802 and cartographic sources depict the mill complex as an extensive area south of the current structure; it was partially destroyed in a fire in 1968. It was noted in the Post-Medieval Survey (part of the Archaeological Survey) that significant parts of the building still stood after the fire, and there are photographic documents and written descriptions of the surviving mill complex prior to the demolition. The site is also located within the boundaries of the Fermoy Architectural Conservation Area and zoned for commercial use.
The site was tested in September 2020 and excavation commenced in September 2020 within Areas 1-3. Following the removal of the tarmac and hardcore layer, which measured c. 0.3m - 0.4m in thickness, and a rubble layer, which measured c. 0.28m - 1.1m in thickness, the subsurface remains of the mill were exposed. These included walls, brick and flagstones floors and cobbled surfaces of both the east and west mill ranges and outbuildings.
No archaeological features or deposits were exposed or identified. No further mitigation is proposed.
Ian Russell, Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth
