County: Kilkenny Site name: KILKENNY: The Maltings, Tilbury Place
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0368
Author: Ian W. Doyle, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin.
Site type: Kiln -malting
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 650349m, N 656003m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.652886, -7.255862
Monitoring and recording took place within a malting house in Kilkenny city centre during 2003. The development entailed the renovation of the rectangular stone brewery building and adjoining square stone annex. Partial demolition of the structure and two abutting buildings to the rear was carried out during the 1990 development of a carpark for a nearby shopping centre. It appears that any potential archaeological features beneath the building were removed by a basement within the footprint of the building.
Tilbury Place (formerly Evans’s Lane) lies to the immediate west of the site and joins Evans’s Lane (formerly Evans’s Lane Upper) to the north and James’s Street to the south. Tilbury Place (marked as Evans’s Lane), James’s Street and Evans’s Lane (marked as Evans’s Lane Lower) are all marked on Rocque’s map of 1758. A structure at this location and of similar dimensions to the existing structure is depicted on Rocque’s map.
Monitoring of development works within the kiln building revealed a basement area divided by a series of limestone masonry walls. These walls rested on natural stratigraphy. It is known that this two-storey structure functioned as the kiln associated with the brewery, and it seems likely that the walls exposed represent the kiln’s furnace. The furnace would have been located on the bottom floor, or in this case the basement, of the structure and would have conducted heat upwards to a drying floor above. During the inspection and recording work no finds were recovered. Inspection of several pits excavated in the basement revealed natural stratigraphy.
