House - 16th/17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

Partial remains of urban tower house situated at No. 10 Irishtown, the corner of Irishtown and St Canice's Place, to S of the former Bull Inn (KK019-026107-). The standing remains of the building were uncovered in archaeological investigations (97E0318) by Edmond O'Donovan (O'Donovan 1997, unpublished). Removal of modern renders from the interior and exterior of the then standing two-storey building revealed the relatively intact N and S ground-floor walls of a house which was dated by O'Donovan to the mid 16th/early 17th century based on a diagnostic dressed limestone chamfered single-light rectangular-headed window and a large timber-lintelled fireplace. The N wall (L 4.2m; H 2.85m; Wth 0.8m) of well-coursed limestone rubble bonded with lime mortar contains the late medieval window and a fragment of a second window dressed limestone chamfered single-light rectangular-headed window at the beginning of first-floor level. Because the building was constructed on soft ground it has subsided slightly, giving the ground-floor window a slightly lopsided appearance. The S wall (L 15.5m from the street frontage; H 2.5m) contains an internally-splayed doorway, possibly original, centrally placed within the wall, and 0.7m W of this, a large timber-lintelled fireplace (Wth 3m; H 1.1m) that is probably also an original feature. Its flue is built of hand-made bricks. Since fireplaces were invariably placed on gable walls of late medieval buildings in Kilkenny the doorway must have entered into a side lane off Irishtown Street. The W side of the fireplace has been altered in the 18th century by the insertion of another fireplace and its flue into the medieval wall. The W wall of the building had been removed when the corner of Irishtown was widened, probably in the 18th century, and the present quoins represent the corner of the new street façade. The E wall of the medieval building is no longer extant above ground level. There is no indication that the medieval building extended into No. 11 Irishtown. Demolition of the 18th-century first floor was undertaken in 1997, leaving the medieval fabric largely preserved in situ. Archaeological test excavations (97E0318) within No. 10 Irishtown brought to light a natural grey alluvial clay at between 2.22m and 2.85m below present ground level (O'Donovan 1997). A soft organic deposit with butchered bone (D 1.5m), interpreted by O'Donovan as occupation make-up, overlay the natural glacial gravel at 1.2m to 1.3m below modern ground level (ibid.). It, in turn, was overlain by a deep, sterile, gravel make-up/levelling deposit (D 0.5m), on top of which the walls of the late medieval building were built (ibid.).

See attached photograph:
KK019-026072-_01 N façade facing onto Dean Street

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Driceoil

Date of upload: 16 November 2020

References

O'Donovan, E. 1997 Archaeological assessment and architectural/archaeological building survey of a development site at St Canice's Place/Irishtown, Kilkenny 97E318 (planning ref 75/96). Unpublished report. Margaret Gowen and Co Ltd.