Discovery of Viking house remains in Cork ‘highly significant’

THE first and earliest known proof of extensive Viking settlement in Cork was uncovered in the heart of the city yesterday.

The 1,000-year-old remains of a rectangular Viking house just off the city’s South Main Street and close to the River Lee, prove conclusively that Vikings sailed up the Lee sometime in the 11th century to settled here.

Patrick Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, and the man who directed the Wood Quay excavation in Dublin, visited the site last week and confirmed the houses to be Viking Type 1.

While the Wood Quay site was bigger, with more finds, Mr Wallace described the Cork site as very significant.

Academic debate has raged for years about whether or not Vikings settled in Cork, archaeologist Máire Ní Loingsigh, of Sheila Lane Associates, said yesterday. “It was always thought there was some form of Viking settlement in this part of the city. But for the first time we now have physical proof.”

The uncovered Viking house remains measure eight metres by five.

They are at the bottom of a deep muddy hole in which up to seven archaeologists were working yesterday.

They believe the remains were once the home of an ordinary family.

Door posts, a threshold beam and a section of wattle wall are clearly visible. Fish bones and scales, weighing scale measures, fragments of decorated combs, parts of a small Viking boat, metal clothing pins, shoe leather and shards of pottery have all been found.

A layer of oyster shells also rings the site.

“We know the occupants would have lined the floors of their homes with oyster shells,” Ms Ní Loingsigh said.

Her team is busy cataloguing the artifacts before they are sent away for analysis.

“We haven’t cleaned the clay from the teeth of the combs yet because sometimes you can find nits and pieces of hair preserved there,” Deborah Sutton said.

City archaeologist Maurice Healy said all the material recovered has proved very significant.

“The site, while smaller, is comparable to Waterford and Dublin Viking sites. Not as much has been dug here, the preservation is not as dramatic, and the dating is a little later, but it there or thereabouts,” he said.

“It is definitely one of the most exciting archaeological finds in the city for years,” he said.

The ancient Viking site is just off the city’s South Main Street on the site of the former city car park, and is overlooked by the former Sir Henry’s nightclub.

Archaeologists believe Vikings chose this settlement site because it was close to the monastic settlement of St Fin Barre’s cathedral, and was an ideal fording point on the river.

This entire city quarter, from South Main Street, over South Gate Bridge, down Sullivans Quay and up Barrack Street, is an archaeologically rich area.

The riverbank Viking site uncovered yesterday is close to the South Gate Bridge, under which the remains of a 16th century city jail were found a few years ago. And just over the bridge, a Viking track was discovered four years ago as the Flying Enterprise bar’s refurbishment project got under way. Archaeologist Deborah Sutton, also of Sheila Lane Archaeologists, and who is working on part of the new site, excavated the project and dated the track to 1085 AD.

She said the remains of a house were found under nearby Washington Street last year during work on the city’s main drainage scheme. It was dated to the 1120s but because it, and the track, were found in isolation, Ms Ní Loingsigh said no definitive conclusions on whether or not Vikings settled there could be drawn. But the latest find is just what archaeologists have been looking for. “We had documentary proof Vikings settled here but now we have the physical proof,” she said.