County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: St Mary's Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19:26 Licence number: 00E0712
Author: Ken Hanley, on behalf of Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Graveyard
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 650949m, N 656293m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.655435, -7.246953
Human skeletal remains were disturbed during pipe-laying along part of St Mary’s Lane, Kilkenny. The burials were exposed outside the south-western boundary wall of St Mary’s graveyard. The site was examined in September/October 2000. A limited amount of archaeological excavation and monitoring was also carried out at either end of the laneway. In all, the remains of 49 individuals were identified: the truncated remains of 44 individuals were recorded in the open pipe-trench; three were identified during subsequent monitoring; and two more were excavated at the north-western extension to the pipe-trench (opposite the existing entrance to the graveyard).
Exposed pipe-trench
An examination of the exposed section faces within the pipe-trench revealed the disturbed remains of 44 (minimum) individual inhumations. These were mostly buried into the natural gravel deposits. Virtually all of the inhumations were aligned roughly east–west. A possible boundary ditch was identified at the southern end of St Mary’s Lane, outside the southern angle/corner of the existing boundary wall. The ditch-like cut was 2.4–3.9m wide (south-east/north-west) by 0.5m deep (min.) and cut through mid-brown, compressed, silty sand, which contained some skeletal remains to the north-west. The backfill, a very stony, mid-brown, gritty sand deposit, contained the remains of two articulated burials. The backfill was sealed directly by modern hardcore and gravel associated with St Mary’s Lane.
North-west extension
Five burials were identified within a thick deposit of stony, mid-brown, clayey sand (C.24) during groundworks to the north-west. Of these, three were recorded but left unexcavated; the other two were excavated. Monitoring along this section of pipeline also revealed a partially damaged 13th/14th-century graveslab. Part of the original cobbled surface for St Mary’s Lane was located at between 52.53m and 52.4m OD, opposite the existing entrance to the graveyard. This lay directly on C.24.
South-east extension
Some limited excavation at the south-east end of the pipe-trench revealed a deposit of domestic waste, which sealed a loose, stony, mid-brown silt and gravel deposit.
Overall, pottery associations suggested a 13th/14th-century date for the main phase of burial. The original cobbled surface along St Mary’s Lane appeared to have been destroyed along the middle and lower end of the laneway, in advance of the insertion of the existing modern cobble-lock. The only surviving section was identified opposite the existing entrance to the graveyard. This surface produced no diagnostic dating evidence but is likely to be 16th-century in date.
44 Eaton Heights, Cobh, Co. Cork
