County: Tipperary Site name: CASHEL: Bank Place
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 61:25 Licence number: 00E0312 ext.
Author: Mary G. O’Donnell, Archaeological Services Unit, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Historic time
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 607714m, N 640720m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.517806, -7.886333
Initial site testing was undertaken in May 2000 (Excavations 2000, No. 916) prior to an application for planning permission. This was granted in 2001.
The main recommendation of the testing report was to design a foundation that would minimise impact below existing ground levels. Five lift-shaft pits would, however, have to be excavated to levels deeper than general formation level. Two of the pits were to be inserted into the part of the site fronting onto Bank Place (Area A) and the other three were to be in the potential graveyard area adjacent to St Dominic’s Friary (Area B). The excavation of the pits took place in August 2001.
Well-preserved archaeological material was uncovered in the two trenches (Trenches 4 and 5) in Area A. Trench 4 (5.3m x 3.5m) was excavated only to the depth required for the lift shaft, but a pit at the base of the trench was partially excavated to obtain a sectional elevation in order to gain an understanding of the stratigraphy. It was filled with deposits of organic material and ash, and part of a Redcliffe jug, mid-13th/14th-century in date, was recovered from the pit. A second pit was not excavated. The layers above the pits were composed of a mixture of organic material, ash and charcoal-enriched deposits. These produced animal and fish bone and sherds of the locally produced Cashel-type(?) pottery, which is mid-13th/14th-century in date. It seems to have been a general dumping area, perhaps close to some domestic dwellings or industrial site. These layers were covered by modern rubble.
The upper levels of Trench 5 had been removed by the 19th-century building associated with 100 Bank Place, and the only archaeological remains that survived were the base of a large pit which was filled with decayed organic material. It contained animal bone, fish bone, a whetstone and sherds of Cashel-type(?) pottery.
The excavation of the trenches in Area B (Trenches 1–3) was largely confined to the removal of the overlying garden soil. No human burials were encountered in these levels and the testing was suspended above the upper levels of the probable burial soil. The pits and that of Trench 4 were then sealed with heavy-gauge plastic and concrete blinding to ensure that no further disturbance below these levels would occur.
Removal of overburden and modern layers from all areas of the site was monitored in August–September and December 2001. When the optimum possible levels had been obtained, the ground was covered with heavy-gauge plastic and a slip of rough mortar to ensure that no further disturbance below these levels would occur.
