County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: Bateman Quay (SITE NOR 23)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19:26 Licence number: 01E1166
Author: Paul Stevens, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Structure
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 650669m, N 656063m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.653395, -7.251125
Excavation was undertaken in June 2002 of a possible stone jetty site, revealed during assessment in March 2002 as a series of post-medieval, parallel riverside walls. Work formed part of archaeological mitigation of the River Nore (Kilkenny City) Drainage Scheme. Proposed development included removal of a 6m-wide section of the right riverbank along Bateman Quay (see also Excavations 2001, No. 695, 01E0554, 01E0303, and No. 1003, Excavations 2002). Dryland excavation of this site took the form of two open-area cuttings, opened within the riverbank and protected from the river by an earthen berm.
Excavation revealed four phases of activity dating from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Phase 1 was an east–west-oriented limestone rubble garden wall, running to the river, with foundations built into the riverbank. This wall was shown on Rocque’s (1758) map and dates to either the late 17th or the early 18th century. Abutting the southern face of the garden wall was a dump of domestic refuse (Phase 2), which produced a high concentration of late 17th- and early 18th-century wine onion bottles (some complete), clay pipe and pottery. Phase 3 was a short limestone rubble wall angled obliquely to the Phase 1 wall and represented the truncated remains of the ‘Pleasure Ho[use]’ shown on the first-edition OS map (1839–41). Phase 4 represented an abortive attempt to build a square riverside structure, which abutted the northern face of the garden wall and dates to between 1872 and 1900. This structure was open to the river and measured c. 3.4m square. The western entrance to this structure within the wall would have required the demolition of the Phase 2 pleasure house. However, the structure was built with inadequate foundations, resulting in a dramatic crack in the northern wall and subsidence into the river.
After conclusion of this excavation, monitoring of development was recommended, which revealed two additional, irregular, east–west-running walls (2.5m apart), 16m north of this site, also post-medieval.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
