1999:416 - NAAS: 19 North Main Street, Kildare

An archaeological evaluation of a site at 19 North Main Street, Naas, was carried out on 13 March 1999 in response to a condition of planning. Planning permission had been granted for the demolition of the existing three-storey building and the construction of a three-storey over basement building. Testing was carried out following the demolition of the previously existing structures.

The property boundaries in the area appear to preserve the medieval burgage plot pattern. The site consists of a rectangular street-frontage property measuring c. 6m along the street front by 12m from front to rear. Testing was limited to the rear half of the site, as a basement already existed towards the street front.

Four small test-trenches were excavated along two proposed trench lines. The total area opened during testing was somewhat restricted because of the unstable nature of the gable walls of the adjoining buildings. In the main, the remaining soil profile within the test-trenches was undisturbed natural. However, what was interpreted as a layer of archaeological material was identified on the south-western side of the site at a distance of c. 4m from the rear site boundary and 1.2m from the side boundary on the south-west. This layer was a brown/black, silty clay with stone, containing inclusions of animal bone and shell. It occurred at a depth of 1m beneath the existing ground surface, which corresponded with the floor level of the recent building. It was a minimum of 0.3m deep, and it appeared that the layer was bottoming out at this level. The layer appeared to be localised within the site. A similar but less well-defined layer was found in another test-trench c. 2m to the north-east, but it could not be determined conclusively whether this represented an archaeological layer as there had been some disturbance in this area.

Construction of the proposed building and associated basement was to involve the reduction of levels on the site. Accordingly, excavation of the archaeological layer identified in Test-trench 4 was recommended, as well as archaeological monitoring of all ground reduction. Because of the apparent localised nature of the archaeological layer that was identified, and also because of the unstable state of the gable walls of the properties adjoining the site, it was recommended that excavation of this archaeological layer be carried out in conjunction with the general reduction of levels on the site.

31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare