County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: 'Cleere's Factory', Ormonde Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0198
Author: Edmond O'Donovan for Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd.
Site type: Graveslab
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 650539m, N 655443m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.647836, -7.253141
An archaeological test excavation was carried out on a portion of a site at Ormonde Road, Kilkenny, on 6 August 1996 to fulfil a condition of the planning permission for the site. The assessment was based on the excavation of four trenches to establish the presence of any archaeological soils or features in the vicinity of houses nos 1-3 within the development. This area was outside that previously investigated by John Channing in 1992 (Excavations 1992, 40).
The site at Ormonde Road is located centrally along the southern defences of the town. It is positioned between Talbot's Bastion, the corner bastion at the south-west corner of the defences, and Kilkenny Castle to the south-east.
The concrete slab was removed in the area of houses 1–3 to facilitate the mechanical excavation of test-trenches. Natural gravels were exposed beneath the surface on the northern side of the area tested, while on the southern side of the site natural clay deposits occur. The basement of a nineteenth-century house was located in the north-west corner of the site. Although the original ground surface had been truncated by the construction of the factory on the site, isolated pits and walls occurred in Trench 1 and these yielded artefacts of post-medieval date (clay pipes, red brick etc.).
Although no medieval or post-medieval archaeological soils, features or deposits were uncovered in the test excavation, the excavation for house foundations will be archaeologically monitored.
During the initial site investigations, a grave-slab was identified attached to the eastern boundary wall of the site. It is rectangular in shape but has been extensively damaged. The four surviving limestone fragments measure 0.94m long by 0.64m wide. The slab is 0.1m thick, carved in relief and decorated with a stepped base terminating in a central midrib extending from it. The top of the slab is missing, but the midrib is likely to have terminated in an interlaced cross or similar decorative design.
The slab has been carved with Roman-style Latin inscriptions located in a band circling the edge and in two separate panels adjacent to the midrib. The name 'Cleere' appears on the slab with the date 1640. It mentions a Margaret Cleere, but it is unclear whether she is related to the deceased or whether the slab commemorates her. The slab is typical of many grave-slabs dating to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries rather than to the seventeenth century.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
