County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: 70–71 John St.
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 94E0057
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 650939m, N 657043m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.662175, -7.246985
Assessment of this site was carried out in response to a condition on the planning permission for the scheme from Kilkenny Corporation. The site lies just inside the line of one of the areas enclosed by the 'city' wall, in the back garden of No. 71 John St.
The site lies within what was a suburb of the medieval city called St John's Ward. It was an enclosed area of some 4.5 ha on the east side of the river. There appear to be no references to it until the 17th century and the wall may not have been built until that time. The enclosed area runs from the standing remains of a corner 'bastion' on Maudlin St. south-west towards the river. The standing remains of the wall run along the southern portion of the enclosed area from the corner 'bastion' as far as the laneway (which is on the line of an old mill race) bounding the development site. There are no other surface remains and the precise northern line of the wall has not been established.
The mill stream has its origin in the 12th century, and was used to power the watermill associated with the priory of St John.
Five narrow slit trenches were opened by JCB on the site. Four were located beneath the proposed building and a fifth, short trench was opened from the line of the extant, much repaired, city ward wall.
One trench revealed loose dark earth, a garden soil, overlying the boulder clay subsoil. Two red-brick and masonry wall foundations and a stone-lintelled red-brick drain cut into subsoil crossed the trench and was picked up in another trench. A few fragments of late post-medieval pottery were recovered.
A third trench exposed 5m of a very well-preserved cobbled surface some 400mm below present ground level. It could not be removed by the JCB and ran as far as an east-west masonry wall.
To gauge from the blocked window opes in the wall bounding the laneway, a warehouse-type structure, possibly dating to the 18th or early 19th century, existed on this side of the site. Elsewhere, the site is covered by a garden soil with few dateable inclusions. No features, soils or artefacts of medieval date, or of archaeological significance will be damaged by the proposed development and the portion of the site adjacent to the line of the 'ward' boundary wall will be developed as a garden, similar to that in the adjacent property.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
