County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: Freren Court, Abbey Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19:26 Licence number: 97E0420
Author: Patrick Neary
Site type: Town defences
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 650300m, N 656166m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.654355, -7.256562
The laying of a length of piping for gas to service a new housing development at Freren Court, Abbey Street, Kilkenny, was monitored as it was within the archaeologically sensitive zone of the medieval city. The route of the pipe went from near the bottom of Abbey Street in the east along the southern side of the road beside the footpath until approx. 15m east of the Black Freren Gate, where it crossed over the street to the northern side in order to pass through the Gate in the area that had previously been excavated by Martin Reid (Excavations 1996, 56, 96E0047). This route proved to be impractical when extra plastic ducts to carry electricity, telephone and television cables were included at the last moment, and a diagonal route through the gate was taken from the north to the south side of the street.
The trench for services measured approximately 100m in total length and was 300mm wide. As the depth of the trench varied from a minimum of 600mm to a maximum of 1000mm, the degree of disturbance to archaeological levels was not excessive, bearing in mind that the installation of services in the past had disturbed a very high proportion of the area excavated.
The only feature of note was some fragmented cobbling that was present at two locations on either side of the Black Freren Gate at a depth of 230mm beneath the present surface near the centre of the road and a depth of 350–400mm at the southern side of the road beside the footpath 6m west of the Gate. This cobbling had been noted by Martin Reid and the monitoring has shown that it extended beyond the limits of his excavation and probably covered the whole street. A date for this feature has not been established.
The main reason for the monitoring was to ensure that damage should not be done to any of the archaeological remains in close proximity to the Gate structure which formed the foundations for the more extensive building that once existed at that location, and that objective was narrowly achieved.
12 Willow Close, Ardmore, Kilkenny
