2001:710 - KILKENNY: Ormond Mills, Kilkenny

Ormond Mills are located on the south bank of the River Nore, some 400m to the north-west of Kilkenny Castle, in Dukesmeadows. References to the Castle Mills date from the 13th century and mills were also noted in this location by the 1654 Civil Survey. By the middle of the 18th century the Ormond Mills were converted to woollen mills. These cloth mills struggled commercially in the 1840s, were revived in the late 19th century under the Reade family and continued production until the destruction of the complex in 1969 by a fire.

The buildings are in a dilapidated state but comprise a series of post-medieval buildings at the west end of several narrow linear islets. The islets are the result of the construction of mill-races, the Kilkenny Canal and the need for tenter areas to stretch and dry cloth. More recent buildings to the east form a large rectangular courtyard. Among the older buildings are four mill-wheels. The wheels are located in buildings of post-medieval date. The greater part of this complex will not be affected by the Kilkenny Flood Alleviation Scheme.

The excavation was focused on a building complex, located between upstanding elements of Ormond Mills to the south and the River Nore to the north. Excavation commenced in October 2001 and finished in early January 2002.

The earliest archaeological components were a series of ‘construction bunds’, built to reclaim land from the south bank of the river and also to serve as suitable foundations for walls enclosing an industrial area. In profile, the bunds were steeply arched and typically 2m high by 3m wide and composed of a rubble core, faced with roughly hewn limestone blocks. Redeposited river silts were laid on the landward side of the bunds in order to create a level surface onto which a northward extension of mill activity could occur. The bunds bridged the gap between Ormond and Lacken weirs.

Rectilinear limestone block walls were seen to enclose an area c. 50m long and c. 10m wide, on which late 18th- to 19th-century industrial features were built. These features consisted of four brick-built furnace bases, at least three rectangular pits and associated culverts, machinery setting blocks, clamps and beam-slots, as well as cobbled and concreted working surfaces.

The furnace bases were circular in plan with diameters in the range 1.55–2.2m. A central firebox occupied each base. An in situ iron grate and deposits of spent fuel were recorded in one of the furnaces. It is likely that these structures, which were fired with both timber and coal, correspond to 19th-century references to ‘drying stoves’. The pits were also brick-built and measured up to 2.8m by 2.1m across and 1m deep. The largest pit had an in situ timber base made of bolted spruce planks. Stone culverts below this timberwork suggested that water management was an integral part of the industrial process. Residues in the smaller pits indicated acid and alkaline washing.

Artefacts recovered included iron flywheels, leather drive-belts, late 18th- to 19th-century pottery and clay tobacco pipes. A single sherd of medieval pottery was found as a residual deposit in made ground beneath one of the furnace bases. Perhaps significantly, a small quantity of sheep bones (mostly lower limbs) was retrieved.

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