The medieval city wall had stood for over 500 years when it was largely demolished to contemporary ground level in the early eighteenth century to make way for the rapidly expanding city. As evidenced by various archaeological excavations, the below ground level preservation of the medieval city wall is unique and this stems from Cork’s location in an estuarine marsh. The city wall survives beneath the modern street surface and in some places is present less than 0.3m below the present ground level to a depth of 3-4m. The wall is generally c. 2m wide at the point of truncation. Frequently the foundations of nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings stand directly on top of the city wall.
