2003:2328 - TRALEE: St John's Church, Ashe Street, Kerry

Planning permission was granted to alter and extend the rectory at St John’s Church. The rectory is a modern building located to the west of the demolished earlier building. St John’s Church is located to the south of the rectory.

Three test-trenches were excavated on the footprint of the foundations to the extension. Topsoil up to 1m in depth was recorded in Trenches 1 and 2. Different horizons were identifiable in the topsoil indicating a long and varied use of the ground. The area had been used for cultivation in the 19th century and possibly for a long time before that. Cultivation features were recorded in Trenches 2 and 3.

Two walls were recorded in Trench 3. The north–south wall was built of roughly hewn and rubble limestone. The upper courses of the wall were mortared, while the lower were bonded with clay. It measured 6m in length by 0.5m in width by 0.4m in depth. It extended beyond the area of the trench to the north and south. A second wall, aligned east–west, was recorded for a length of 1.2m in the trench. It extended beyond the area of the trench to the east. It was a seam-jointed wall. It was the same size and construction as the wall aligned north–south. An area of cobbling was recorded to the east of the wall. The cobbles were sandstone and measured, on average, 0.25m by 0.07m. The walls are illustrated on the 19th-century Griffin Valuation Map and the first-edition OS map. The long axis of wall, aligned north–south, is the westernmost wall of the now demolished rectangular building at the rear of the old rectory. The east–west-oriented wall is the northernmost wall of the same building. The cobbled surface may have been the internal floor of the same building. The building was probably a coachhouse.

3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry