2006:1066 - KILKENNY: Mary’s Lane Antiques, St Mary’s Lane, Kilkenny

A test assessment was carried out at St Mary’s Lane Antiques, Kilkenny, in September 2006. This site is located in the heart of the historic medieval core of Kilkenny city adjacent to Mary’s Lane and the medieval site of St Mary’s Church and graveyard, and adjacent to or perhaps within the Shee townhouse property that extends to High Street. The purpose of the work was to assess the likely impact of the proposed development on these significant features.

A single test-trench was opened inside the antique shop building, which forms the northern extent of the Paris Texas bar and restaurant property, Nos 91–93 High Street. The test-trench was excavated against the south-west wall of the building for a distance of 8.55m and measured between 1m and 3.1m wide.

The pre-existing ground level within the antique shop was 51.87m OD. Soils were removed to a maximum depth of 50.5m OD. No human burials were encountered. A small number of human bone fragments recovered were incidental within the imported post-medieval garden soil recorded to a depth of 0.75m. Below this, medieval garden soils were recorded. A number of fragments of both local and imported 13th/14th-century pottery were recovered from this deposit. Natural boulder clay was not encountered. The rising medieval soils towards the north-east side of the trench coupled with evidence of burial remains found during work in St Mary’s Lane and the adjacent properties (by Ken Hanley, Excavations 2000, No. 550, 00E0712; by Ian W. Doyle, Excavations 2003, No. 1024, 03E0572, and by Sinéad Phelan, Excavations 2003, No. 1025, 03E1856) indicate the potential for exposing human skeletal remains in any foundation trench or deep excavation required for the proposed new development.

A late 18th/early 19th-century red-brick and limestone masonry bread oven was exposed within the trench against the south-west wall of the building. The structure measured a minimum 3.1m in length and 3.4m wide. The upper surface of the oven was exposed at 0.3m below the concrete floor. The oven appeared to reuse an earlier, possibly late medieval, masonry wall, aligned roughly north-east to south-west, within its fabric.

Preliminary assessment of the fabric of the building revealed a heavily altered mixed red brick, masonry and mass concrete structure. The standing north-east-facing shop front is a modern concrete and steel construction. The south-eastern wall is aligned with a medieval burgage plot boundary and, although faced with handmade red brick, probably retains some late medieval fabric and is associated with the Shee townhouse. The north-western wall contains tooled stone of probable medieval date at the exterior south-western corner. Much of the northern end of that wall appears to be a post-medieval rebuild. The south-west wall is heavily remodelled, with several visible phases. Further assessment of the fabric has been recommended.