County: Kilkenny Site name: ST FRANCIS ABBEY, Smithwicks Brewery, Kilkenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0069
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: Structure
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 651097m, N 656151m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.654145, -7.244788
This work was undertaken beneath the footprint of a small extension to the existing fermentor block. The structure rests on a piled foundation. Pre-development inspection and excavation of test-trenches (related to the relocation of services) revealed no medieval remains. Study of two previous phases of extension to the fermentor block had revealed an organic silt deposit, thought to be of possible medieval date, sealed by fill and below the formation level of the new structures (by this writer, Excavations 1996, 58, 95E0242, and by Edmond O'Donovan, Excavations 1997, 105, 97E0099).
Two 600mm-wide masonry wall foundations of post-medieval date, crossed through by services, were revealed within the development area, but these could not be identified with any particular phase of the site's history. Beneath fill and cut by these walls the organic silt deposit recorded in the previous investigations was found to continue into the extension area at the same depth as before.
For future development purposes a general historical study of the brewery site, incorporating existing archaeological records, is due to be undertaken in 1999.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
