2005:811 - ST CANICE’S CATHEDRAL, CHURCH LANE, KILKENNY, Kilkenny

Monitoring of excavations for a gas-pipe trench at St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, was undertaken in response to a request by the Select Vestry of the cathedral. The route of the pipe trench lay within the area of constraint of Kilkenny city, inside and adjacent to the precinct of St Canice’s Cathedral, and extended from the north-east side of the chancel, under the boundary wall with Church Lane and south towards the Cathedral Steps/Velvet Lane.
On the east side of the chancel the trench crossed the suggested line of the mid-12th-century cathedral of St Canice, which was pulled down in the early 13th century to make way for the present building. The trench in this area measured 0.3m wide and cut through 0.8m of ‘graveyard earth’, which contained occasional disarticulated human bone and a mixture of medieval and modern finds. This sector had evidently been greatly disturbed, probably as a consequence of the groundworks undertaken by Dean Vignoles in the mid-19th century. No evidence for the former church was uncovered.
The discovery of disarticulated human remains continued outside (and to the east of) the existing stone boundary wall, indicating that the present cemetery is smaller than its medieval counterpart. The human remains were found at a minimum depth of 0.2m beneath the existing ground level of the lane. Where exactly the eastern limit lies is not known, though it may follow the flat ground into the rear gardens off Church Lane. Likewise an absence of dating evidence means it is not clear when exactly this section of the graveyard first developed. It can be stated, though, that the frequency of disarticulated human remains recovered from Church Lane is suggestive of large-scale intercutting of graves, as is commonly identified in medieval cemeteries. That this was identified outside the boundary wall is of significance because it suggests that this area of the cemetery was in use for a considerable time period.