2022:936 - Rear Barrett House, Market Square, Kildare, Kildare

A programme of Archaeological Testing was undertaken within the extent of a proposed residential development located to the rear of Barrett House, Market Square, Kildare Town at and as part of the preparation of an Archaeological Impact Assessment requested by the Planning Authority following receipt of a planning application.

In summary, the subject site is located within the Zone of Archaeological Potential established for Kildare Town – SMR No: KD022-029; the zone is included in the Record of Monuments and Places and subject to statutory protection under the provisions of the National Monuments Acts  1930 – 2004.

The site is positioned between the extent of the early medieval monastic enclosure and extent of the medieval urban/town settlement. There are no previously identified monuments located within, or in the immediate environs of the site; the southern extent is positioned approximately 63m inside the line of the mediaeval town defences. Historical and cartographic research indicates that the site formerly included boundaries which reflected medieval burgage plot divisions; these appear to be still reflected in the eastern and western boundaries of the overall site. Such research also indicates that the overall site, including the proposed development area, has been the subject of various development works, with those dating from the mid-eighteenth century to the present illustrated in the historic maps.

The programme of intrusive archaeological testing, comprising the machine excavation of four trenches, indicates that, for the most part, much of the site has been the subject of extensive ground disturbance works, largely associated with demolition and development works dating from at least the mid-twentieth century. However, a number of features of historical interest and archaeological potential interest were uncovered. In particular, the remains of a late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth-century wall foundation (F1) and a drain (F2) in T1, with various pit features uncovered in T3 and T4; limited investigations of these pit features – F4, F5 and F7 – indicates that they appear to date to the post-medieval period and may be related to the disposal of rubbish associated with domestic activities or activities undertaken within the former late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth-century outbuildings. Apart from the wall foundation remains in T1 (F1), no further evidence for these structures was uncovered, largely due to the nature and extent of previous ground disturbances, although the eastern boundary wall does contain scars of the internal dividing walls that once existed.

It is concluded that there is likelihood that further pits and other potential features of archaeological/historical interest are contained within the extent of the site, particularly in the southern extent. Furthermore, it is considered that some, or all, of any such remains will be disturbed, and possibly require removal, by construction-related activities such as ground reduction/site preparation works to construction level, foundations and service trenches. Consequently, it was recommended that, in the event that planning permission was granted for the development, a requirement for archaeological monitoring and further intrusive investigations be undertaken.