1999:390 - KILDARE: Bride Street, Kildare

An archaeological excavation was conducted on the site of the proposed development of the new Kildare Credit Union at the junction of Bride Street and Bangup Lane. The excavation was carried out over eight weeks between 6 April and 26 May 1999. It involved general ground reduction to a depth suitable for construction throughout the south-western part of the site. Further test areas were excavated to the east and north-east.

Excavations revealed the presence of a large, north-south-aligned ditch feature in the western part of the site. The ditch showed up as a dark, organic clay upper fill against an olive-yellow subsoil. No trace of a bank survived at the surface. A roughly square, possibly defensive, stone-built structure was later constructed at the southern limit of the site, the origin and date of which are difficult to determine. It was separated from the later medieval activity by a build-up of redeposited, natural, yellow, compact, sandy clays. The structure comprises four roughly hewn, random-coursed limestone walls, the parallel, east-west-aligned walls abutting a larger, north- south-aligned wall. The larger wall appears to be the earliest.

The subsequent activity on the site consisted of a series of medieval cobbled surfaces, related pits and other features. Later, in more recent times, a series of large linear cuts and pits indicates extensive excavations relating to a nearby butcher's yard.

After consultation with Dúchas The Heritage Service, it was recommended that the structure be left in situ and that alternative designs for the proposed building be prepared. A conservation project with regard to the structure is ongoing at the time of writing.

8 Yewland Green, Renmore, Galway and Clonmel, Co. Tipperary