2006:1031 - Greenshill, Gowran, Kilkenny

Arising from an archaeological assessment and building survey carried out by Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology (Excavations 2005, No. 804, 05E0014), Kilkenny County Council recommended that further testing, monitoring and excavation be carried out in advance of the construction of the ‘Ogenty’ housing development on the Kilkenny road, Gowran. The proposed development site was within the zone of archaeological constraint for the historic town and was just inside the line of the medieval ‘town ditch’. Testing and subsequent excavations uncovered two areas within the site that produced significant archaeological remains.
Within a cutting of 42m by 32m (Area A), the remains of a previously undocumented street of 13th/14th-century date were discovered. This extended east–west and would originally have joined with the medieval marketplace to the east. It averaged c. 12m in width and was formed from closely packed gravel and small cobbles. ‘Potholes’ within it were patched with larger stones. A silted gulley ran parallel with the north side of the street (the south was outside the limit of excavation) and a series of cesspits, borrow pits and refuse pits were positioned outside the drain. No definite remains of buildings adjoining the street were noted, though the remnants of what may be stone platforms for at least two small cabins were recorded. Numerous horseshoe nails were embedded in the street surface, as well as an occasional find of ‘Kilkenny-type’ pottery. The pits produced more local medieval pottery, coins, a chisel and animal bones.
Area B was centred on the town ditch, the line of which had been identified by the 2005 testing. Mechanical excavations for two service trenches, 2m wide, were monitored and the uppermost fill of the ditch, which was 5m in maximum width, was identified. A surprising discovery immediately adjacent to the defences was a ring-ditch of late prehistoric date with a central burial pit. It was not necessary to carry out further excavations here, as the archaeological remains were positioned well below the formation level for the services.