County: Tipperary Site name: CASHEL: The Green
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 61:25 Licence number: 98E0302 ext.
Author: Mary G. O’Donnell, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 607932m, N 640287m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.513903, -7.883141
The South-Eastern Health Board is carrying out a major redevelopment scheme at Our Lady’s Hospital, Cashel. An EMI/Alzheimer’s Unit is to be built in undeveloped fields to the north of the hospital grounds. Part of the town wall forms the boundary between the hospital and the site of the development, with the hospital on the outside of the town wall. An existing but blocked breach will provide access from the hospital to the new units. The town wall is the subject of a conservation strategy, and the removal of the modern material in the breach was supervised.
In 1998 a test excavation was undertaken by Rose M. Cleary (Excavations 1998, No. 596) in the area to be developed, and the results informed the final layout of the new units. The excavation revealed that a thick deposit of topsoil covered much of the site. As a result, all groundworks on the site were monitored intermittently over twelve weeks between July and September 2002.
Two areas of archaeological interest were uncovered during topsoil removal at the eastern end of the site, and both were excavated. In Area 1 a large intramural ditch was uncovered extending roughly parallel to the town wall, 5–6m from it. The ditch was c. 18m long with a rounded terminal at either end. The eastern end was uncovered, but because it was not to be affected by the development it was recorded but not excavated. The end of the western terminal lay just outside the area of excavation and roughly in line with the modern breach through the town wall. A 13.4m length of the ditch was excavated; it was 2.5–3.2m wide and c. 1.1m deep, with a broad V-shaped profile and a rounded base. There was no evidence of a bank associated with the ditch. The ditch probably had a defensive function, perhaps relating to the wall or pre-dating it, but no evidence of the date of the ditch was found.
A series of intercutting pits of medieval date was uncovered in Area 2. The function of the pits is as yet unclear, as analysis of the fills is to be completed. A few sherds of medieval pottery, mainly Cashel type (of 13th-/14th-century date), were found in most of the pits.
A series of features relating to the garden on the site in the 18th and 19th century was also revealed during monitoring.
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
