2006:1062 - KILKENNY: The Deanery Orchard, St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny

An assessment at the Deanery Orchard, Coach Road/Church Lane, Kilkenny, was undertaken in response to a request by the Select Vestry of St Canice’s Cathedral for archaeological investigations to inform the feasibility, design and layout of a proposed surface carpark development. The proposed development area lies within the area of constraint of the city and is within the St Canice’s designated architectural conservation area as defined in the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2002. Exploratory testing was carried out on the site by Andrew Gittens in 2002 (Excavations 2002, No. 1006, 02E0845).

The Deanery Orchard is a roughly L-shaped area of c. 1670m with maximum dimensions of 49m east–west by 38.5m. The site is fully enclosed by high walls and is entered through a narrow doorway opening from Coach Road to the west. Church Lane bounds the north of the site, dividing it from the graveyard of St Canice’s Cathedral. On the east, the site is bordered by the rear garden and house of the sexton of the cathedral. The south overlooks the backs of modern dwellings that front on to Dean Street.

The site was at least partially within the inner precinct or termon of the monastic complex of Cill Chainneach, which can trace its origins to the 6th or 7th century. In the early 13th century the present cathedral was constructed, replacing an earlier Romanesque building. In the late 16th–17th century a complex of about a dozen stone mansions formed a ‘Cathedral Close’ in a quadrangle around the cathedral. These buildings housed the ecclesiastical dignitaries of St Canice’s. Coach Road, which now divides the deanery from the site in question, was not constructed until 1689 and it is to this time that the western boundary wall of the site may logically be ascribed. Prior to the construction of Coach Road, the grounds of the deanery included much of the proposed development area, with the eastern side being in the possession of the Precentor. The walled garden as it appears today owes its origins to the late 17th century and was used until recently as a vegetable garden and orchard.

The key finding from the test excavations in 2002 was the identification of what was interpreted as a section of the truncated remains of an earthen vallum that delineated the boundary of the pre-Norman monastic precinct of St Canice’s. At a later stage this was cut into by a stone corn-drying kiln and covered by a mass disposal of butchery waste and a homogeneous graveyard deposit. In the late 18th/early 19th century, a vast quantity of topsoil was imported to provide a good depth of soil for the planting of fruit trees. The 2006 test excavations were carried out primarily to clarify the nature, date and extent of the archaeological remains and to allow for an archaeological impact assessment to be drawn up for the proposed development.

Between 19 April and 3 May 2006 six test-trenches were excavated across the proposed development area using a mini-digger with a 1.2m-wide toothless bucket to remove the sod and a ‘garden soil’ that was of relatively modern (19th/early 20th-century) date. All additional works were undertaken manually. Four main archaeological phases were identified.

Phase 1: Early medieval c. AD 600–1170
All of the early medieval activity recorded at the Deanery Orchard was situated in the northern half of the site. The suggestion made by Gittens that strata from the levelled gravel and clay bank of the inner vallum of the monastic precinct survived within the site is strengthened by the discovery in Trench 4 of some evidence for this bank and a section of the monastic ditch in Trench 5. Other archaeology of early medieval date took the form of two pits with antler tines, one of which cut the aforementioned bank in Trench 4. Substantial evidence for antler working was recorded throughout the northern half of the site in the form of tines, though these were all from secondary contexts. Other finds of pre-Anglo-Norman date in a similar stratigraphic position include a fragment (6g) of hacksilver and a disc-headed stick-pin. The evidence points towards the Deanery Orchard having been a working area outside the central precinct prior to the Anglo-Norman invasion.

Phase 2: High medieval AD 1170–1600
The high medieval archaeology recorded at the Deanery Orchard took the form of an extensive spread of clay and gravel that was possibly derived from the original monastic bank. This deposit was cut into by a corn-drying kiln and a stone-lined pit in Trench 5 and in Trench 6 it was peppered with pits of quite substantial size. A series of additional pits in Trench 5 were also probably of high medieval date, although they were not excavated. No cultivation soils could be confidently dated to this phase, although this may be a consequence of extensive reworking of the soils in later times rather than a reflection of the actual land-use patterns. As would be expected, local Kilkenny-type pottery was in abundance, with some British and French imported wares also represented. The distinct impression gained from the archaeology unearthed thus far is that much of the area remained in use as a working yard throughout the medieval period, and the south of the site may have been utilised as gardens.

Phase 3: Post-medieval AD 1600–1800
The high medieval deposits in Trench 5 were sealed by a layer of stone metalling containing coins that dated it to the late 17th century. This probably formed a yard for the adjacent Dean’s manse. The reuse of a stone-lined pit in the north of Trench 5 as an oven probably also dates from this period. An abundance of finds—pottery sherds, metalwork and glass—were recovered from this context. The earliest strata of dark cultivation soils may also be ascribed to the late 17th or early 18th centuries. These were probably derived from alluvial silts and contemporary debris and spread over the site, and indeed much of Kilkenny during the period; these ‘dark earth’ deposits are found throughout the walled town sealing medieval strata. In the Deanery Orchard they account for up to 1.5m of the stratigraphic sequence and were utilised for the gardens and orchards of the period. While no direct evidence of gardening layouts or designs was identified, the documentation of a sequence of cultivation strata in all of the trenches excavated indicates that there probably exists a series of garden levels within the site. These strata also contain archaeological objects in abundance.

This period also provides quite reliable cartographic representations of the site in question and both the Rocque and Byron maps agree that the area was largely open ground, with a small building associated with the house of the Precentor (now the Sexton’s house) having occupied the north-east corner of the site. The historical sources indicate the site was divided between the Deanery and the Precentor, though how exactly this was achieved is not known, as none of the existing internal boundary fences may be dated prior to the later 18th century, to judge by their absence from Rocque and Byron.

Phase 4: Modern
The uppermost cultivation layers can be dated to the 19th century, when the site was used as a garden and orchard. This raised the internal ground levels again. Minor buildings and an alternative entrance were constructed in the north-east quadrant.

At the time of writing a planning application for the carpark has been submitted and it is expected that further archaeological interventions will follow in 2007.