1997:311 - KILKENNY: 13–18 William Street, Kilkenny

Archaeological test-trenching was carried out at 13–18 William Street, Kilkenny, on 26 and 27 June 1997. The site is located between Poyntz’s Lane and William Street (formerly Bolton’s Lane), within the parish of St Mary’s. A third laneway, Guard Lane, is located between and runs parallel to Poyntz’s Lane and William Street. The site is located within the medieval walled town of Kilkenny, which expanded greatly in the 12th and 13th centuries under William Marshall. Medieval burgage plots can be seen along the west side of High Street where the uniform plots stretch back as far as the town wall, their dimensions stipulated in William Marshall’s foundation charter of 1207.

The archaeological assessment was undertaken to identify whether there were any indications of medieval activity on the site and whether Guard Lane went across the site to meet Garden Lane, which marks the extent of the medieval town.

Five trenches were mechanically excavated across the site. Trenches 1 and 2 were located along the northern perimeter, oriented east–west, and measured 15m and 10m respectively. Trench 1 consisted of an upper fill of loose sand and mortar overlying a soft brown clay with occasional pieces of red brick which overlay the subsoil. It contained occasional oyster shell and butchered animal bone. The finds, dated to the late 17th to 18th century, consisted of fragments of clay pipes and post-medieval pottery.

Trench 2 had a similar stratigraphy to that of Trench 1 and produced the base of a small bowl of post-medieval date.

Trench 3 was located parallel to William Street, oriented east–west, and measured 10m. The stratigraphy for this trench was similar to the other trenches and it produced no artefacts. There was no indication of a medieval street frontage along the present line of William Street.

Trench 4 ran parallel with the western perimeter, was oriented north–south, and measured 10m. The trench was excavated in the former back garden of No. 14 William Street. It produced several sherds of modern glazed plates and stems of clay pipes. Located within the trench was a U-shaped mix of large rounded and angular stones in a matrix of a brown silt clay. The feature was at a depth of 0.9–1.3m below the present ground surface and was cut into the natural subsoil. There were occasional animal bones mixed within this stone layer.

This feature was also identified within Trench 5, which was parallel with the eastern perimeter of the site, oriented north–south, and measured 8m. No artefacts were found within the feature. The line of their occurrence in both trenches is not similar to the expected line of Guard Lane. There is a possibility that these features may join and extend across the entire site. The nature of this stone layer is unclear solely from test-trenching.

The excavation of test-trenches revealed that there is no archaeological evidence of any medieval structure or medieval activity on the site. No further excavation was deemed necessary, but licensed monitoring was recommended should any further ground disturbance occur at the north-east of the site.

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