County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: 5–7 James's Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0427
Author: Paul Stevens for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 650339m, N 655943m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.652347, -7.256019
An assessment took place in September/October 1998 for a proposed shopping arcade development site fronting James's Street, Kilkenny, in the centre of the city within the town walls. The proposed development site extends from James's Street to High Street, where the existing 1960s shopping arcade will be refurbished.
Three linear test-trenches were opened across the site, which revealed an archaeological deposit crossing its northern half. This medieval garden soil was truncated at the southern side and also partly truncated by the floors of the Edwardian houses. It sealed a number of medieval occupation features including a posthole, an irregular feature and two wall trenches parallel to the street. The garden soil and the features beneath it contained green-glazed medieval pottery and cut limestone fragments. The southern half of the site was heavily truncated by recent activity, and no medieval soils survived.
The development site was thought to lie along the line of the early Anglo-Norman town wall; however, no remains of the wall were revealed in the trenches opened, therefore the wall may lie immediately to the north under or north of James's Street.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
