West Cork was 16th century global trading hub, pottery find reveals

By Sean O’Riordan

Archaeologists say a coastal part of West Cork was a thriving international trading hub in the 16th century.

Excavations in the area have unearthed a wide range of pottery from as far away as China, Germany, and Italy.

The shards of pottery, some of which came from France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, and Belgium, were discovered close to the Franciscan Friary on Sherkin Island.

What stunned archaeologists was the quantity and range of exotic pottery from the site. These ceramics, dating mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries, include high-status tableware, as well as more utilitarian vessels such as olive jars.

Although the discoveries were made between 1987 and 1990, it is only now that their importance is being highlighted.

Details of the excavations will be published for the first time in the annual Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS), which is being launched at 7pm tomorrow at the Cork City Library on Grand Parade.

The excavation team was led by archaeologist Ann Lynch, under the auspices of the National Monuments Service.

“We excavated inside the friary and immediately to its west. It was to the west that we found an incredible amount of exotic material,” said Dr Lynch.

Although the Sherkin/Baltimore area was a known haunt of pirates at the time, Dr Lynch said she believes the ceramics also came into the area as a result of trading.

“It was a huge trading area with ships coming into Baltimore and Skibbereen on a regular basis from France and Spain,” she said. “There was also a huge fishing fleet offloading its catch at Sherkin Island.”

“I believe that Baltimore was a major hub for trade and piracy — and the growth of the town there was largely as a result of that. In the 17th and 18th century there was also a major pilchard-curing industry based by the former friary in Sherkin and that would have brought in traders as well.”

Griffin Murray, president of CHAS, said: “Really, it is not surprising to find such exotic pottery on Sherkin Island. While it may seem remote from a modern perspective, one must remember that the sea was the highway in the past and that Baltimore Harbour was one of the major ports of Ireland.”

The journal will also contain details of ‘Insurance Fire Brigades in Nineteenth-Century Cork’, by Pat Poland.

From their inception, insurance companies had a vested interest in ensuring that when fire broke out in premises under their cover, as little damage as possible was done in order to reduce the amount of a claim.

In the absence of a public fire service, they set up their own fire brigades replete with stations, engines, and part-time personnel which they dressed in highly-distinctive uniforms.

The first such station in Cork city opened in Carey’s Lane, off St Patrick’s St, in 1799, and was operated by the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation.

Articles in the journal also include ‘Benedictine monks from Rosscarbery in Würzburg’, ‘Life in a West Cork Clachan’, and ‘John Walsh: Nineteenth-Century Cork anti-Newtonian’.

The journal will be launched by UCC professor of archaeology William O’Brien, who is well known for his excavations of prehistoric sites in Cork.