1998:355 - KILKENNY: New Street Lower, Kilkenny

Initial monitoring of development works on this site was previously reported (Excavations 1997, 101). Further monitoring of the groundworks associated with the preparation of the carpark area was carried out in March 1998. A large area of topsoil was cleared, and a series of foundation trenches was cut for a perimeter wall. All groundworks were carried out by mechanical means.

The removal of topsoil involved the cutting of an arbitrary level into the ground, which cut through the garden topsoil and partially into a subsoil, different in colour and content. The topsoil was a loose, dark brown silt, typical of garden soil in urban locations; it contained occasional fragments of mortar and red brick and frequent flecks of charcoal. Ceramic finds from this were all post-medieval in date. A compact, mid-brown/green clay subsoil, containing frequent flecks of charcoal and occasional fragments of red brick and mortar, underlay the topsoil. Finds from this layer were similar to those from the topsoil but less frequent.

Some features were found at the arbitrary level of topsoil removal. There were three areas of burning, which were linear in form, shallow in profile and equidistant in plan. They were filled with a dark brown clay/silt, which included charcoal and fragments of broken glass. A series of deeper pits of similar fill and composition was also revealed at this level. Both of the features were cut into the subsoil. They align with the existing property boundaries to the north-east of the site. It was hypothesised that these features represent potting holes for boundary hedges.

All trenches for the perimeter wall were excavated into the boulder clay. The sections of these trenches revealed no archaeological features.

Clover Hill, Mallow, Co. Cork