1997:301 - KILKENNY: New Building Lane, Kilkenny

An archaeological assessment and monitoring were carried out at a development site on New Building Lane, Kilkenny. The site is located at the northern end of Hightown on a laneway off Parliament Street. The southern end of the town, centred on the Grand Parade, is thought to be the focus of the earliest Anglo-Norman town. New Building Lane is likely to have been laid out in the 16th century as the town expanded. No evidence for medieval occupation has been revealed during recent archaeological assessments or monitoring works on the lane, although a number of important 16th/18th-century buildings survive around the lane, one of which (New Building) is within the development site.

Test excavation had previously been carried out on part of the site by Sarah McCutcheon (Excavations 1996, 59, 96E0142). This initial work focused exclusively on ‘New Building’ and not on the remaining portion of the site to the west. This assessment involved a survey of the existing sheds on site and test excavation.

The site is rectangular and measures approximately 53.6m east-west and 8m north-south. The survey of existing buildings identified two sheds and a small building to the south-west of ‘New Building’. These structures were utilised as small-scale industrial/retail premises during this century up to the present day. The existing walls incorporate a series of small, single-storey domestic dwellings and outhouses, which post-date the 18th century and have been substantially altered. Plaster render was removed from selective areas throughout the buildings so that the fabric of the walls and nature of the openings could be examined. No features of architectural interest apart from the New Building itself were identified; this has been retained as part of the development.

Eight test-trenches were excavated. Four (Trenches 1–4) were located along the foundation of the proposed housing and a further four (Trenches 5–8) along the line of the services in the laneway to the rear of the site. The trenches ranged from 2m to 5.5m in length and were 0.5m in width. They uncovered areas of late post-medieval disturbance (Trench 1) and garden soil (Trench 2). This soil was 0.58m thick and contained few inclusions. A single sherd of pottery, glazed on both sides, retrieved from Trench 2 suggested a late medieval date for the cultivated soil. The trenches located along the laneway recorded a uniform loose mortar rubble fill mixed with red brick above the natural gravel deposits.

No medieval or Tudor architectural features were discovered in the fabric of the then-existing structures, which were demolished. This portion of the laneway was lined with single-storeyed cottages in the 18th and 19th centuries. Only very altered fragments of these buildings survived in the existing structures. The excavation of test-trenches indicated that no significant archaeological soils, features or deposits are present on the site. The partial survival of late medieval garden soils suggests that the site remained open up to the 18th century, when the domestic cottages fronting onto New Building Lane were constructed.

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