Excavation — miscellaneous in Cork City

Revealed beneath modern overburden in an open backyard area to the rear of Number 52 Barrack Street, Cork during archaeological testing (Licence No. 21E0361). Partly truncated by modern and post-medieval ground reductions on its north-eastern side. Otherwise, intact prior to excavation programme (21E0361 ext.). The previously unrecorded ditch feature measured up to 9.6m in width and 2.9m in depth (below the level of untruncated subsoil which was revealed to its southwest). Up to 0.5m of disturbed, modern overburden overlay the upper fill of the ditch. Within the development site, the ditch was revealed for a distance of 24m and extended in a northwest to southeast direction across the south-western portion of the site. A 3m wide section was manually excavated to its base at its north-western revealed extent, elsewhere the ditch fills were excavated to below construction formation level, with underlying fills remaining in-situ. Within the manually excavated section, the ditch had moderate to sharply sloping sides and a U-shaped base. It was evident that the ditch continued beyond the boundaries of the development site at either end of its alignment. It was also evident that there was an element of curvature to the ditch, as it trended towards a more east-south-easterly component at its revealed south-eastern end, as such, it would appear that the ditch enclosed ground to its northeast. Within the development site, the ditch was filled by at least ten infill layers with the lower infill layers comprising relatively sterile soils and large stones and boulders, indicative of a purposeful backfilling effort. There was only a small amount of silting at the base indicating that the ditch was either open for a short period prior to backfilling or, alternatively, that it was frequently cleaned out while in use. The lower fills were overlain by a layer of redeposited subsoil at the mid-fill level of the ditch. The extent and consistency of this layer suggests strongly that it represents a systematic infilling effort following the partial backfilling of the lower portions of the ditch. A number of sherds of late medieval green glazed pottery, including Ham Green B ware (Clare McCutcheon, pers. comm.) were retrieved from this fill layer. The presence of such pottery suggests that this backfilling activity was undertaken sometime around the 13th century. The upper fills of the ditch which overlay the redeposit layer had a more garden soil quality and were likely associated with the largescale market garden activity that was undertaken in this general area in the 18th and 19th centuries. Compiled by: David Murphy Date of upload/revision: 10 March 2022