Excavation - miscellaneous

The National Monuments Service's description

Medieval stone-lined pit uncovered in archaeological test-excavations (07E0910) by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil in the rear plot of No. 21 High Street, Kilkenny (Ó Drisceoil 2008, unpublished; 2010, 254). The site is situated within the walls of the Hightown of Kilkenny, on the chief thoroughfare of the Anglo-Norman town and 70m SW of the site of the Market Cross of Kilkenny, which formerly stood near the Tholsel (KK019-026061-). The present building at 21 High Street (NIAH 12000055) was constructed in 1819 as a Glebe House for the parish church of St Mary's (KK019-026115-) via a grant from the Board of First Fruits, and it incorporates the shell of a three-storey over basement Elizabeth/Jacobean merchant house (KK019-026051-), which was itself heavily-modified in the Georgian era (Farrelly et al. 1993, 42; Murtagh 1999, unpublished; Ó Drisceoil 2008, unpublished; 2010, 254). The early modern house may have formed the inner house of a building complex, the original front house having been on the High Street frontage. Elizabethan/Jacobean features in the rear wall of the building include the remains of a three-light window of dressed limestone, the jamb stone of another window and a projecting chimney flue (Farrelly et al. 1993, 42). Thirty metres W of the rear of the building a large rectangular stone-lined pit/well (int. dims. 1.75 N-S x > 3m E-W; D > 0.8m) with battered sides was uncovered in the test-excavations (07E0910). An 0.8m deep sondage excavated into its silt and mortar backfill yielded Kilkenny-type and Saintonge pottery and a locally-produced roof ridge-crest, indicating its infilling occurred in the 13th/14th century. The feature was situated adjacent to five quarry/refuse pits that cut into the natural yellow boulder clay and directly inside (to S of) the foundations of the medieval northern burgage wall of the plot. The subsoil-cut and the stone-lined pit underlay garden soils (D 1.6-2m) that were probably introduced for orchards in the early modern period. Foundations for a coach-house marked on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map were also noted to E of the stone-lined pit. All of the archaeological features were preserved in situ.

See attached photograph of excavation.

Compiled by: 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 Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Murtagh, B. 1999 Report concerning a preliminary archaeological assessment carried out upon No 21/22 High Street, Kilkenny containing Uncle Sams restaurant, (Ben Murtagh Buildings Archaeologist, unpublished report).

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.

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