Hermitage

The National Monuments Service's description

Anchorite cell located in the angle of the E wall of the Chapter House and the S wall of the chancel of St Canice's Cathedral (KK019-026029-). Mortar floor of cell partially excavated (13E0015) by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil (Ó Drisceoil 2013, unpublished). The floor’s location corresponds with the ‘ancient foundations [which] would appear to have formed the nave of the more ancient church’ that was discovered by John Prim in 1845 (Graves and Prim 1857, 32). The outline of these foundations on the N and S sides of the chancel were marked by Graves and Prim on their published plan of the cathedral (ibid. opp. 65). Sometime prior to c.1500 lean-to roofs were placed above the foundations on both sides of the chancel to remodel them into small cubicles that have been equated with anchorite cells that were referred to in the 17th century by Bishop David Rothe (ibid. 66, 69, 70). At the base of the northern cell two flag-lined graves, thought to be those of hermits that occupied the cell, were discovered in 1866 when a scaffold pole was sunk into the floor (Prim 1866, 449-451). The make-up of the floor of the northern cell was not described but its depth ‘nearly 4 feet below the level of the choir’ would correspond well with the level of the mortar floor [007] (ibid. 70). Very little information is available regarding the southern cell apart from the following paragraph by John Prim in the Kilkenny Moderator, ‘On examining the southern side of the choir, the removal of some plaster from the walls has also proved that a similar cell had existed on that side. The entrance was by a round headed door from the south chapel, similar to the original entrance to the cell on the north side; but in this latter case, the door had not been superseded by the forming of a more modern mode of admission, from the choir. The marks of the roof, shedding up against the south wall of the transept, and by the east gable of the south chapel, are indisputably clear...’ (Kilkenny Moderator 22.11.1865). The round-headed doorway is still extant and the excavated mortar surface may have formed the floor of the cell.

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 13 November 2020

References

Prim, J.G.A. 1866 Proceedings: the hermit’s cell, St. Canice’s. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries Ireland 8, part 3, 449-450.

Graves, J. and Prim, J.G.A. 1857 The history, architecture and antiquities of the Cathedral Church of St. Canice, Kilkenny. Dublin. Hodges, Smith and Company.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2013 Archaeological monitoring report: Saint Canice’s Cathedral Graveyard (RMP KK 19-026171), Kilkenny City (13E0015). Unpublished report. Kilkenny Archaeology.