County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: 1 Greenhill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19-26 Licence number: 99E0522
Author: Mary Henry
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 649996m, N 656013m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.653004, -7.261087
The site is just to the east of the River Nore and north of Irishtown in the city of Kilkenny.
Testing was carried out before the construction of two semi-detached houses and associated site works. Four test-trenches were opened manually on the imprint of the proposed development. The only archaeological remains uncovered dated to the early modern period, i.e. post-1700.
The upper level of the site was dominated by a thin cover of poor-quality topsoil. It appeared to have been imported to the site. A cobbled surface was uncovered towards the rear of the site. The surface occurred below the topsoil at a depth of 0.27m and abutted a poorly built wall. The cobbled surface and wall may have been part of the remains of an outdoor yard and retaining wall. Where the cobbled surface did not occur, there was a deposit of very compact, hardcore-like material beneath the topsoil. In one location the hardcore sealed a pocket of tarmacadam. Elsewhere the hardcore overlay a deposit of ash with inclusions of smashed bottle glass. The ash was dumped over a new layer of cobbled surface. This cobbled surface was 0.6m below ground level, and the cobbles were set into a mixture of mortar, ash and a dark yellowish/brown, silty clay. This deposit was 0.9m thick and overlay naturally deposited subsoils. A wall belonging to the building that previously stood on the site dominated the trench opened along the front and through the centre of the development.
24 Queen Street, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
