County: Kilkenny Site name: ST MARY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19:26 Licence number: 05E1070
Author: Patrick J. H. Neary, 24 Talbot’s Inch Village, Freshford Road, Kilkenny.
Site type: Urban medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 650851m, N 654563m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.639897, -7.248666
Monitoring of duct laying for ESB and telephone cables and removal of the concrete surface in preparation for re-paving took place in September–November 2005. A previous excavation carried out by Ian Doyle (Excavations 2003, No. 1024, 03E0572) in advance of gas pipe laying revealed human burials at a shallow depth beneath the surface, and some of these skeletons that were partly excavated during the gas pipe laying were further disturbed.
An amount of bones both human and animal were recovered as stray finds, as were many fragments of potsherds dating from the medieval to the modern period. Also retrieved were a nicely carved bone handle from a late medieval knife and part of an incised gravestone from the nearby cemetery that occupied the location before the laneway was established.
The cobblestone surface that immediately pre-dated the concrete was also uncovered intact at some locations and the stones were relaid at selected spots.
