County: Tipperary Site name: GOLDEN: Main Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0353 ext.
Author: Jo Moran
Site type: House - 17th century
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 601235m, N 638509m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.497982, -7.981808
The site was tested for archaeological material in April 1997 (Excavations 1997, 162). An 18th- or possibly late 17th-century building, believed to be a 'clubhouse', was identified on the street front at the west end of the site.
Monitoring of service trenches in 1998 established that the remains of the 'clubhouse' survived in fairly good condition, buried below flood silts and deliberate infill on the edge of the flood-plain; however, the plan and function of the building are still unclear. Sherds of 17th-century pottery sealed below the building suggest a late 17th/early 18th-century construction date.
Cobbled surfaces leading to the adjacent bridge over the River Suir underlie the 'clubhouse' walls.
Two clay-bonded, stone walls were uncovered towards the rear of the site, and two furnaces filled with charcoal and slag were uncovered close to the street front. Charcoal spreading out from the hearths contained several hearth bottoms and a quantity of iron waste. The ironworking and walls may pre-date the bridge. They may be associated with the tower-house on the island in the river, but pottery recovered overlying the walls and hearths (three sherds) is of 13th-century date.
33 Woodlawn, Cashel, Co. Tipperary
