Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Excavation - miscellaneous
Gardens (kilkenny City By., St. Canice Par.), County Kilkenny, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Gardens (kilkenny City By., St. Canice Par.)
- County
- Kilkenny
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 52.65713, -7.25757
- SMR number
- KK019-026236-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUniversity Library, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Within the grounds of the 14th-century palace for the Bishop of Ossory (KK019-026123-) and 22m N of the N transept of St Canice's Cathedral (KK019-026029-). An early medieval pit filled with waste from a bone and antler working workshop, uncovered in excavations (11E0157) (Ó Drisceoil 2011, www.excavations.ie; 2012, www.excavations.ie; 2013, www.excavations.ie, 2018). The subcircular pit (1.3m N-S x 1.6m E-W; D 0.67m) cut the backfilled outer fosse associated with the ecclesiastical enclosure (KK019-026231-) and the natural gravel subsoil. It was filled with off-cuts from bone and antler working, notably fragments of composite bone/antler combs (Dunleavy Class G) and 'pot-boiler' cobbles. A piece of antler from the pit was radiocarbon dated to AD 990-1155. Included in a diverse assemblage of charred archaeobotanical material were two grape-pips. One was radiocarbon dated to AD 1000-1155, in keeping with the other related dates. The other pit was, however, dated to the Iron Age, 365-60 BC. What might be the workshop building that produced the waste material was identified in geophysical surveys of the lawn to the NW of the Bishop's Palace 10m to the N of the pit (Earthsound 2005, 7). Around 75% of the contents of the pit were excavated but the remainder was preserved in situ.
See attached photograph.
Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil
Date of upload: 11 November 2020
References
Ó Drisceoil, C. 2018 From Gaelic church settlements to Anglo-Norman towns: problems and possibilities. In H.B. Clarke and Sarah Gearty (ed.), More maps and texts: sources and the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, 115-34. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.
Ó Drisceoil, C. 2013 Excavation and Archaeological Building Survey at the Robing Room, Heritage Council Headquarters (former Bishop’s Palace),
Church Lane, Kilkenny 2011 & 2012 (11E157 & 11E157 ext.): final report. Kilkenny Archaeology (https://www.academia.edu/9523935/Archaeological_Excavations_at_the_Bishops_Palace_Robing_Room_Saint_Canices_Cathedral_Close_Kilkenny; accessed 5 November 2020).
Ó Drisceoil, C. 2011 The Robing Room, Bishop's Palace, Church Lane, Kilkenny. Licence no. 11E0157. Excavations.ie: database of Irish excavation reports (https:// www.excavations.ie/report/2011/Kilkenny/0022513/ ; accessed 3 August 2020).
Ó Drisceoil, C. 2012 The Robing Room, Bishop's Palace, Church Lane, Kilkenny. Licence no. 11E0157. Excavations.ie: database of Irish excavation reports (https:// www.excavations.ie/report/2012/Kilkenny/0023391/ ; accessed 3 August 2020).
Nearby in the register
- Kiln - limeunder 1 mi
- Buildingunder 1 mi
- Ecclesiastical residenceunder 1 mi
- Cathedralunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.