1997:308 - KILKENNY: St Francis's Abbey/Smithwick's Brewery, Kilkenny

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: St Francis's Abbey/Smithwick's Brewery

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number:

Author: Edmond O’Donovan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.

Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous

Period/Dating: Undetermined

ITM: E 650518m, N 656203m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.654667, -7.253335

Archaeological test excavation was carried out on a proposed fermentor block at St Francis’s Abbey Brewery, Kilkenny. The proposed development is located 100m to the south of the upstanding remains of the Franciscan abbey, which was founded between 1231 and 1234 by Richard Marshall, third earl of Pembroke.

A single test-pit was excavated on the site. The trench measured 2m east-west and 1.3m north-south. A hard, compact, yellow boulder clay was identified 2.57m below present ground level. This was sealed by a black organic silty clay, 1.32m deep. The uppermost 1.25m of fill consisted of demolition rubble, hard-core and thick concrete slab.

The site is illustrated as undeveloped in the mid-18th century (Rocque’s map of Kilkenny, 1758). The dense layer of black silty clay was sterile, suggesting that this area remained open prior to the 18th century. No trace of the mill-race channel illustrated on the map was identified; however, this appears to be located to the south of the test-pit. No trace of any timber structure was uncovered in the test-pit. It is thought that the medieval port of Kilkenny (hence New Quay) was situated in the vicinity of the proposed development, although the exact location is unknown. The rubble encountered at the upper end of the test-pit is likely to be the demolished remains of buildings removed and replaced during the reorganisation of the brewery in the past few decades.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin