1997:296 - KILKENNY: Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny

Archaeological test excavation was carried out on a proposed development site on Friary Street, Kilkenny. Friary Street is located west of High Street, in an area thought to be within the 13th-century town. The initial focus of the town was on the west side of the River Nore. It extended from the castle, south of Friary Street to James Street, to the north of the development site.

Seven test-trenches were excavated throughout the site. The rear (northern) portion of the site was unavailable for trenching owing to the presence of standing buildings. The trenches varied between 6.6m and 3.65m in length, although the extent of the test excavation was restricted by the current use of the site as a carpark.

The trial-trenching and inspection of standing buildings did not reveal any definitive medieval soils or structures. No deep stratigraphy existed on the site and natural boulder clay was identified at approximately 0.8m below the present ground level (Trenches 1 and 3). However, the 'garden soils' revealed in Trenches 1, 3, and 5 are likely to date from the medieval period (no medieval pottery was recovered from any of the trenches).

The 'ditch' located in Trench 5 was interpreted as a water-filled property boundary. It is not indicated on Rocque's map of 1758, suggesting that it may be pre-18th-century, although no dating evidence was retrieved from the feature.

A possible clay floor associated with a fragment of a clay pipe was recorded in Trench 1. The deposit lies above the aforementioned garden soil and immediately below rubble and disturbed deposits, which appear to have partially disturbed the soils below. The clay floor is likely to date from the post-medieval period, at which time houses were constructed fronting onto Friary Street. These houses were certainly in place by the mid-18th century, although they could be earlier. A substantial Tudor building (No. 11 High Street) survives on the southern corner of High Street and Friary Street and it is likely that contemporary housing was laid out along Friary Street in the early post-medieval period.

The gable end of an early 18th-century building was identified at the western end of the site. It was built over and is therefore later than the wall uncovered in Trench 6. The central triangular chimney column shared with an adjoining property is characteristic of pre-Georgian buildings (M. Craig, Dublin 1660-1860 (Penguin, 1952); N. McCullough, Dublin, an urban history (Anne Street Press, 1989)).

The underlying archaeological deposits on the site have been substantially altered by recent building activity. Several disturbed areas were revealed in the test-trenches (Trenches 2, 3 and 6). These consisted of demolition rubble, infilling pits and semi-basements located to the rear of properties along the street front.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin