2025:656 - Crosse's Green, Cork

The Beamish and Crawford Quarter Infrastructure development is a public realm improvement scheme located in the southwest of the City Centre Island, linking the city’s medieval spine with the established commercial core of the City Centre island. The proposed development is located within “Beamish and Crawford / Grand Parade Quarter”, the redevelopment of which is identified in the Cork City Development Plan as Objective 10.14.

One of the objectives of this project is to provide two new pedestrian bridges linking Crosses’ Green to Lamley’s Lane and Frenches Quay to the site for the New Event Centre. The portion of works at the Beamish and Crawford site, South Main St, which lie to the west and south of the River Lee, and in proximity to previously identified human remains, are being completed under a Section 26 Licence to Excavate.

Excavation in the south-west of Cork city centre, on the southern side of the River Lee has identified that the entire area has been raised in height, with excavation trenches rarely penetrating through early modern century infill layers. Nothing related to activity before the 18^th century was identified and there was no trace of features or structures associated with the Dominican Priory.

Two finds of disarticulated human bone were recovered. From the top of a silt layer, at the eastern end of Crosse’s Green were two leg bones, while a disarticulated human bone was recovered from infill layers towards the west of the street. TVAS Ireland, in their 2023 excavation, demonstrated that inhumations, including stone-lined graves, are present to the west, and the excavation by O’Rourke in 2007 recovered 166 burials from the car park on the northern side of Crosse’s Green. It is possible that the graveyard does not extend to the eastern end of Crosse’s Green itself, as this was the main route to the priory from the city, or that trenches excavated during these works did not penetrate deep enough to impact upon any articulated human remains.