County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: 1 Friars Bridge/Abbey Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0242
Author: Richard Clutterbuck, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 650201m, N 656855m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.660555, -7.257919
A test excavation consisting of a 1m2 test-pit was carried out before an extension to a two-storey house on the end of a terrace of houses on Abbey Street/Friars Bridge. The site is just east of the chancel of the Black Abbey, a Dominican priory founded in 1225 just outside the walls of Kilkenny; it was most probably within the former precinct area of this medieval establishment, where excavations in the past by Martin Reid and Frank Ryan have revealed significant archaeological remains, including human burials (Excavations 1996, No. 204, 96E0047; Excavations 2000, No. 530, 00E0335). The planned extension will be built on a raft foundation; the build level is 0.45m beneath present ground level.
A preliminary analysis of the site determined that the standing buildings date to the 19th and 20th centuries. Testing was carried out over c. 11% of the impact area. All features exposed date from the 19th–20th centuries, consisting of an upper demolition layer, two walls of the demolished annexe visible on the first-edition OS map, and multiple layers of modern dump and disturbance containing domestic refuse, including 18th- and 19th-century pottery and animal bones, some of which were butchered.
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14
