County: Cork Site name: Bantry General Hospital, Dromleigh North, Bantry
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 22E0802
Author: Bruce Sutton
Site type: Union workhouse
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 449660m, N 548044m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.664694, -10.173370
Archaeological monitoring of ground reduction to the south of the hospital building revealed the lower courses of stone and mortar boundary wall associated with the Bantry Union Workhouse and dating to the 1840s.
The First Edition 6-inch and First Edition 25-inch OS maps show this yard space to have been subdivided into four areas which are consolidated into a single yard by the time of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch Cassini Edition (1940s). All Historic Editions show a small building centrally located at the rear wall, but this building lay outside the development area and was not identified during monitoring.
The Bantry Poor Law Union was officially declared in 1840. Designed by the Poor Law Commissioners architect George Wilkinson, the workhouse was opened in 1845 at a cost of £8,200. It was built to house maximum capacity of 800 inmates. The yard wall identified during monitoring is associated with this initial phase of construction and dates to the 1840s. The facades of the wall were uncovered for recording, and subsequently backfilled with gravel to be preserved in situ.
Metal detection of spoil, under licence no. 22R0370 identified no archaeological objects
Unit 2, Europa Business Park, Midleton, Co. Cork, P25 TV25
