House - 16th century

The National Monuments Service's description

Occupying nos. 17-19 High Street, Kilkenny, within the walls of the Hightown of Kilkenny and on the chief thoroughfare of the Anglo-Norman town, 55m SW of the site of the medieval market cross. This house, consisting of a number of buildings divided by courtyards, was built by Martin Archer, whose armorial plaque (KK019-026179-) adorns the front of the building, bearing his coat of arms and the date 1582. Most of the original six-bay, three-storey over basement late 16th-century house survives intact incorporated into the present buildings at 17-19 High Street (Farrelly et al 1993, 41; Ó Drisceoil 2008, unpublished; 2010, 254). This includes the main Archer house on the street frontage, which was linked to an inner house, converted in the mid-1700s into 'the Hole in Wall' supper-club (KK019-026050-), via a link-building. Although substantially altered in the 19th century, nos. 17-19 High Street still retain many of the original fine limestone architectural features belonging to the Archer house, including cut stone late 16th-century doorways, mullioned windows and an octagonal chimney.
Late 16th/mid-17th century garden features were uncovered in test-excavations (07E0910) by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil in the rear plot. To the rear (W) of the inner house a section of the original walled burgage plot (dims. 28m E-W x 17.5m N-S) survives relatively intact. Remains of a fine Tudor garden were noted here by Lanigan and Tyler in 1977 but it is now heavily overgrown (Lanigan and Tyler 1987, 61). The plot would have originally extended a further 70 W to the town wall (KK026-019001-), but this part of it was built upon in the late 18th/early 19th century for a Methodist chapel (NIAH 12001125). At 17.5m wide the burgage plot measures exactly 3.5 perches. Test-excavations (07E0910) here demonstrated the standing N, S and E garden walls were built around the same time as the main house complex and their offset foundations were cut through an earlier introduced horticultural soil containing 13th/14th century Kilkenny-type and Highhays Ware pottery (Ó Drisceoil 2008, unpublished; 2010, 254). Deep deposits of construction-rubble make-up (0.75m D), probably derived from the building of the house in 1582, topped with a (1m D) layer of introduced horticultural soil, were spread within the burgage walls and over the earlier, medieval, garden horizon to form a new garden, which was used throughout the late 16th/17th century. The level of the garden was raised again, probably for orchards, in the 18th century. All of the archaeological features were preserved in situ.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly and Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 4 November 2020

References

Farrelly, J., O'Reilly, B., and Loughran, A. 1993 Urban archaeological survey - county Kilkenny (2 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2010 18, 19 and 21 High Street (rear of), Kilkenny. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, no. 962, 254, Bray. Wordwell.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2008 Preliminary Archaeological Impact Assessment Report: Proposed Commercial Development Nos. 18, 19 and 21 High Street, Kilkenny City 07E0910. Kilkenny Archaeology. Unpublished report.

Lanigan, K.M. and Tyler, G. 1987 Kilkenny: its architecture & History. Kilkenny.