2003:1008 - KILKENNY: St Canice's Parochial House, Dean Street, Kilkenny

In advance of an application for a grant of planning to develop residential units and upgrade St Canice’s Parochial House (the Presbytery) at Dean Street, Kilkenny, testing and a survey of all the standing walls and structures on the site was required. The site lies within the medieval city and within the ecclesiastical settlement associated with St Canice. The Urban Archaeological Survey places a church, the ‘Dean’s Chapple’, in the area of the proposed development. Rocque’s map of 1758 places the church central to the entire site, leaving the western side of the church in the garden and the remainder under the existing presbytery.

Testing was carried out by hand. Seven test-trenches were opened, each c. 1m2 with a maximum depth of 1m, in the garden to the west of the presbytery. The trenches were opened approximately on the footprint of the proposed buildings and entrance. A further trench, 4m by 0.8m, was opened at the easternmost end of the site nearest to the presbytery, where an extension to the building was proposed. Two trenches contained rubble fill. These were in the area of the western half of the church site. In Trench 6, the fill lay on top of an intact floor at a depth of 1m. It is possible that this floor and rubble represent the remains of the Dean’s Chapple. The western extremity of the structure was probably defined by the rubble fill at a distance of 10m from the western wall. No evidence for a wall was found. No finds or features associated with the early ecclesiastical settlement or the medieval city of Kilkenny were found. A survey of the walls surrounding the site found them to be of no specific date and of no specific interest. They will not be impacted on by the proposed development.

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