1996:176 - CASTLEDERMOT: Main Street, Kildare

Pre-development archaeological assessment of the site was carried out in 1995 (Excavations 1995, 44) and identified archaeological features thought to represent the remains of a ditch or ditches. Thus in May 1996 an excavation was carried out to establish the nature and extent of archaeological deposits.

The site lies in the centre of the medieval walled town of Castledermot, to the south of the town square. It is located at the junction of Main Street with a lane linking Main Street and Carlowgate. The layout of Main Street and the lane were thought to reflect the medieval street pattern on the site.

Twenty-two medieval pits were identified in three archaeological cuttings. A further six pits were recorded during monitoring of foul- and stormwater drains as well as during excavation for foundations. The pits varied in size from 0.75m in diameter and 0.34m deep to 3.94m in diameter and 2.78m deep. They varied in shape from oblong to shallow and circular to deep and steep-sided. Some of the pits cut each other, and others cut into natural subsoil. None of the pits extended beneath the boulder clay into the underlying sand and gravel, although two pits terminated at the junction of the natural boulder clay with the gravel.

Many of the pits were backfilled with a similar deposit of compact silty/loamy clay. A substantial quantity of pottery and animal bone was recovered from all of the features. The pottery was predominantly Irish and included a range of glazed and unglazed domestic wares dating to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; very few sherds of French or English pottery were recovered. A large assemblage of soot-encrusted Leinster cooking ware was identified, as were a large plate and some glazed drinking jugs. The animal bone revealed is likely to result from meat consumption, and the nature of the bone suggests that only fragments of the entire skeletal remains survived. Only one pit revealed the near-complete skeleton of an animal.

The precise function of the pits is unclear. A number of the pits may have been used for the disposal of domestic rubbish, and the high ash content in some probably represents hearth rake-out. However, the nature of the large pit F8 appears different. The basal fill of this feature consisted of redeposited boulder clay with very few inclusions (either bone or pottery). It is possible that the pits had a dual purpose; as well as being rubbish pits, the clay extracted could have been used in building as well as in the manufacture of pottery.

The excavation concentrated on areas which were to be disturbed by the new development, resulting in a deliberate bias in the areas investigated. The pits were located in a line 7–8m back from the present street front, with a dense concentration on the west side of Main Street. It is likely that the original street was narrower than it is at present and that the pits reflect the rear line of the houses which would have fronted onto the street. A degree of continuous use in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries is suggested by the stratigraphic relationship between the early features, with three phases of medieval pits truncating each other.

The absence of any late medieval or post-medieval activity apart from a few sherds of seventeenth-century pottery in Cutting 3 suggests that the site was abandoned throughout this period. The final phase of activity on the site was the construction and occupation of the farmstead in the early part of this century.

Monitoring of foundation excavations was carried out by Eoin Sullivan in April and October 1996. This confirmed that the archaeological features uncovered during the excavation are similar in nature, size and complexity, suggesting that the proportion of the site which was excavated was representative of the archaeological material surviving on the site.