2004:0893 - BLACK ABBEY/BREAGAGH RIVER, Kilkenny, Kilkenny

This licence covered both the monitoring of the extraction of river gravels from the River Breagagh as well as a small rescue excavation carried out in the grounds of the Black Abbey.

River Breagagh dredging
The nature of the finds retrieval exercise in the River Breagagh mitigated against the collection of any stratigraphical information for the finds recovered. The extracted gravels were removed to an area set aside for their cleaning and examination. All finds were therefore dated by typology. While this led to a number of interesting findings, it did not allow the range of conclusions that properly contexted artefacts can present.

The majority of the finds recovered were ceramic (230 sherds). The assemblage, as well as being the easiest to date by typology, has the greatest continuity with elements from the medieval period onwards. It is the finds type which shows the greatest continuity of activity along the banks of the Breagagh. From local and imported medieval wares through to modern crockery, many different types and forms of ceramic were recovered. These findings from the river back up the historical and archaeological evidence that shows that the banks of this portion of the River Breagagh was host to much activity from the medieval period onwards.

The other finds assemblages show similar patterns, to a greater or lesser extent. Metal finds showed a similar date range, if with only one medieval find, a guildhall horseshoe. The glass and clay pipes both had limited date spans. This is in relation to the periods in which they came into use rather than a negative result.

The architectural stone recovered from the river also had a wide date range, with examples being recovered from the medieval, post-medieval and modern periods. The presence of the stone shows the continuous development of this area of Kilkenny from the medieval period onwards.

No prehistoric finds were recovered. Prehistoric ceramics do not have a high survival rate in riverine conditions and so the fact that no sherds were recovered is not surprising. More unusual is the lack of stone, metal or bone finds from this era. A similar finds retrieval exercise on the River Nore turned up a wealth of prehistoric material (although, again, no ceramics) and it is surprising that such results were not mirrored in the Breagagh.

Black Abbey excavation
The depth and size of this excavation mitigated against being able to piece together the entire story of what was occurring in this portion of the Black Abbey grounds over the entire history of the site. The site was dug to a maximum depth of 1.25m below the current ground level and measured 6.78m north-south by 6.75m. This area encompassed the north-west corner of the current abbey grounds.

Although the area in which the site is located is now part of the abbey grounds, this is quite a recent development. According to the cartographic evidence, since at least 1840 the northern portion of the site was taken up with a series of industrial buildings, which were linked by a private unnamed bridge with a similar series of buildings on the north bank of the river. It is possible that these buildings have an earlier date than the cartographic evidence shows, but it would seem unlikely that these buildings were standing before 1758, the year in which John Rocque surveyed the city of Kilkenny. Although there are doubts as to whether the cloister of the Black Abbey was as large as represented on the Rocque map, it would seem unlikely that he would have mistaken active industrial buildings for a portion of a ruinous abbey. None of the archaeological evidence suggests that this portion of the grounds was separately developed for industrial purposes before the late 18th century.

The archaeological remains that were uncovered consisted of two substantial masonry walls, around which a number of floor levels separated by land reclamation deposits had been added to raise the level of the ground surface. This was probably done to counteract flooding from the Breagagh. The dating evidence for the site comes from these deposits. All the finds, apart from one 17th-century sherd of North Devon gravel free ware, were 18th or 19th century in date. This ties in with the cartographic evidence showing the development of this area as an industrial plot in the late 18th/early 19th century.

The stratigraphy of the site is typical of the successively raised floor levels built around riverside structures to deal with regular flooding. This is especially true of the Breagagh, which is and was prone to serious flooding. The deposits used to raise the floor levels show some evidence for industrial activity, but not specifically the activity with which the site is labelled on the OS maps. On the OS maps the buildings associated with this plot are marked as a Malt House. No evidence of the features associated with this activity, such as a steeping tank or drainage channels, was uncovered during the excavation. Any evidence for the raised germination floor would have been destroyed during the demolition, especially if, as was usually the case, this was constructed of wood. The industrial evidence discovered during the excavation was a quantity of clinker. This evidence for coal-fuelled kilns may be associated with the kilns needed in the malting process but could just as easily relate to any number of industrial processes. The clinker in the land reclamation deposits was probably produced by processes on the site and the need to raise the floor levels provided a convenient dump.

The form of the structure, which would have been supported by the two masonry walls, remains unclear. There is just 1.25m separating these parallel walls. None of the maps show a structure this narrow and the walls would seem to be too substantial to be foundations for internal partitions. It is possible that the northerly wall was a support for the river wall and that the southerly wall was the external north wall of a structure which stretched further into what is now the abbey garden. The floor levels provide a small amount of corroborating evidence for this, as a cobbled floor level, which occurs only between the two walls, may be an external lane rather than an internal floor level. This supposition is impossible to prove, however, without further excavation.

No evidence for activity earlier than the 17th century was uncovered during the excavation. It seems probable that, if any medieval deposits or structures survive in this portion of the site, they would occur at a deeper level than the excavation, as the evidence shows that the ground level was being consistently raised.

27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2