2006:1055 - KILKENNY: Green Street/Troy’s Gate Street, Kilkenny

Pre-development test-trenching was carried out by the writer (Excavations 2003, No. 1027) before construction of a proposed apartment building at the corner of Troy’s Gate Street/Green Street in the north half of the medieval borough of Irishtown. This site is located close to one of the projected circuits of the medieval town wall and is also in the vicinity of a possible location of Troy’s Gate. There was no trace of the medieval town wall, structures associated with Troy’s Gate, or any medieval deposits in the test-trenches, which exposed modern and post-medieval yard deposits overlying natural gravel-rich subsoil.

Further test-trenching was carried out in 2006 following the removal of two buildings on the site. These overlay 0.8–1m-deep layers of post-medieval rubble material that overlay the natural subsoil. Due to the proximity of the development site to one of the projected lines of the Irishtown wall, monitoring of all further ground-reduction works during construction was also carried out in 2006. The post-medieval rubble materials under the buildings and yard were found to overlie directly the natural gravel-rich subsoil in all areas.