2005:816 - 91–93 HIGH STREET/ST MARY’S LANE, KILKENNY, Kilkenny

Test excavation was carried out at 91–93 High Street, St Mary’s Lane, Kilkenny. The site stretches from the medieval High Street to St Mary’s graveyard. Work was carried out in advance of a proposed redevelopment of the Paris-Texas Bar and Restaurant complex. The existing buildings on the site (formerly Woolworth’s) are within a concrete-framed structure built in 1928 and incorporating the remains of the late 16th-century Tudor Shee House that fronted onto the High Street. A scaled survey of the surviving portions of the Shee House building was carried out as well as a descriptive and photographic survey of the built fabric of the entire site. Test excavation was initially carried out by Sinéad Phelan in 2003 (Excavations 2003, No. 1025, 03E1856); this summary describes the second phase of testing at the site.
St Mary’s church and graveyard and recent excavations
The first reference to St Mary’s Church dates from AD 1205, when the Bishop of Ossory held an ecclesiastical court there. It was constructed as a parish church for the Hightown and is likely to have also serviced the household of the castle. Burials within the grounds of the church date from AD 1200 into the later post-medieval period.
A significant excavation was carried out in 2000 by Ken Hanley (Excavations 2000, No. 550, 00E0712). The remains of 49 individuals were identified during pipe laying at the southern end of St Mary’s Lane c. 2m from the proposed development site. This excavation was located outside the south-western boundary wall of St Mary’s Church and graveyard. A possible boundary ditch was identified at the southern end of St Mary’s Lane. The pottery assemblage retrieved from the excavation suggests a 13th/14th-century date for the main phases of burial excavated in the laneway. The original cobbled surface along St Mary’s Lane appeared to have been destroyed along the middle and lower end of the laneway, in advance of the insertion of the existing modern cobble-lock. The only surviving section was identified opposite the existing entrance to the graveyard. This surface produced no diagnostic dating evidence but is likely to be 16th century in date. The 16th-century date for the cobbling in the laneway might suggest that the present enclosure of the church and graveyard dates from this period.
In July 2003 Ian Doyle excavated the remains of eleven individuals in the laneway in advance of the construction of the gas pipe (Excavations 2003, No. 1024, 03E0572). This excavation was carried out as result of monitoring of pipe trench excavation to the north of the existing boundary wall of St Mary’s Church and graveyard. The remains of eleven individuals were excavated; again the burials dated from the medieval period (AD 1200–1400).
The evidence from the excavations clearly demonstrates that the current wall that encloses St Mary’s graveyard is not contemporary with the site’s earliest use as a cemetery and that burials dating from the medieval period are located beyond the graveyard wall. However, it would appear that the original cemetery boundary and part of the early enclosing ditch may have been identified in Hanley’s excavation in the laneway.
The medieval High Street
High Street was established at the end of the 12th century and was the main thoroughfare of the medieval town. It was built by English settlers in c. 1200 to provide access between the newly built castle, St Canice’s Cathedral and St Patrick’s Church. The High Town was based along this single north–south street, with two others, Walkin Street and James’s Street, running from it at right angles towards the west and a back street, now known as St Kieran’s Street, running diagonally on the east.
Post-medieval Kilkenny
Kilkenny was a wealthy mercantile town in the early post-medieval period (AD 1550–1650). This is manifest in the large number of high-quality early post-medieval buildings that were built there. The most famous and best preserved of these is Rothe House, the home of the Rothe family, located on Parliament Street. The site is occupied by a series of rectangular buildings built with their long axis parallel to the street, separated by courtyards extending from the street. Rothe House, the building on the street front, was built in 1594 by John Rothe.
Other important merchant families in addition to the Rothes have been commemorated in mausoleums and table tombs in St Mary’s Church and graveyard. These families include the Archers, Langtons, Knaresboroughs and Shees. It is these merchant families that constructed the ‘great stone houses’ of Kilkenny in the late 16th and early 17th century.
The fabric of the late 16th-century Shee House
The proposed development site incorporates the site of Shee House. The building survived largely intact until c. 1928, when the majority of the structure was demolished to provide a Woolworth’s department store in Kilkenny. A wall plaque bearing the Shee coat of arms commemorating Henry Shee and his wife was retained and replaced in the façade of the Woolworth’s building; the plaque is said to date to 1580 (now broken off), when the house was built. Henry Shee later became Mayor of Kilkenny, in 1601 and 1611.
The two gable ends of the High Street house survive to second-floor level, where they have been incorporated into the property boundary. In addition to this, a 5m-long section of the rear house wall extends from the south-eastern gable. A fragment of the front façade of the building also survives as a pillar next to the south-eastern gable wall, although this portion of the building has been severely altered, with the insertion of modern shop fronts and 20th-century window openings.
Summary of archaeological findings
One-third of the development site adjacent to St Mary’s Lane was subject to test excavation. The other two-thirds are currently occupied by a public house and restaurant and it was not possible to excavate further trenches through the floor in these locations in view of the buildings’ active use. The late 16th-century basement of the Shee House building is still extant along the High Street portion of the site.
Shallow archaeological deposits were identified in Trenches 1–3. No deposits in excess of 0.5m in depth were discovered. Large areas within Trenches 1–4 revealed boulder clay immediately below a concrete floor slab. The general ground level at the site rises from St Mary’s Lane up to the High Street. The sloping ground level can be seen in the general topography along the neighbouring Rose Inn Street. This might explain the absence of archaeological soils in Trench 4, located to the south of the other trenches. The construction of Crotty’s Bakery early in the 20th century appears to have involved the creation of a level ground flush with the ground level in St Mary’s Lane. This is likely to have removed some of the archaeological deposits in that portion of the site.
It was not possible to excavate test-trenches within the working kitchen or dining room in the property. However, the ground level is 1m higher (at 51.8m OD) than the ground level within the old bakery. The rise in ground level follows the topography in St Mary’s Lane. The proximity of this portion of the site to the burial located in Trench 3 and in the neighbouring graveyard strongly suggests that further burials are located within the proposed development site adjacent to St Mary’s Lane.
The identification of the surviving walls of Shee House is a significant discovery at the High Street end of the development site. Principally the gables of the Tudor building survive on either side of the property plot on High Street. The identification of the Tudor fireplace securely dates the structure of the walls. A fragment of the rear and front wall of the Shee House survives. Additionally, a coursed limestone masonry property boundary wall bisects the property, although the wall has been largely demolished and only survives as a foundation.