2006:1063 - KILKENNY: St Francis’ Abbey Brewery, Kilkenny

Monitoring was carried out at the site of St Francis’ Abbey Brewery in Kilkenny for Diageo Global Supplies between July and November 2006.

The brewery property is bounded to the east by the River Nore, to the south by Bateman Quay, to the west by Horse Barrack Lane and to the north by the properties on Vicar Street and Green Street. The brewery is divided into a northern and a southern section by the River Breagagh. The Abbey of St Francis, a national monument, occupies a central place within the southern portion of the brewery. The Franciscan abbey was founded between 1231 and 1234 by Richard Marshall, third earl of Pembroke.

Monitoring in 2006 was carried out during a second phase of drainage remediation works required at the site. The contract commenced in 2004 in the southern portion of the brewery, directed by Kevin Lohan (Excavations 2004, No. 900). The licence was extended to cover works in 2006 that were focused in the northern portion of the brewery on the northern side of the River Breagagh.

Required service trenches were excavated to a depth of 2m and revealed sterile black riverine silt clay at between 1.2m and 2m below the present ground level. This material was sealed by a thick deposit of mixed building rubble and gravelly sand interpreted as late 19th/early 20th-century reclamation and levelling. Two layers of concrete yard surface separated by gravel filling were recorded in the uppermost section of the trenches.

Deep excavations required to accommodate the insertion of petrol interceptor tanks were monitored at three locations. Between 2.7m and 3.5m of material was removed exposing a deposit of black riverine silt clay, c. 0.65m thick, over river gravel. No archaeological material was recovered from these riverbed and accumulated river bank deposits. Again these deposits were sealed by late 19th/early 20th-century rubble and gravel reclamation and levelling deposits and by concrete yards surfaces.

Records of the deposits at the site from its western to eastern end indicate that the area sloped gradually from west to east towards the River Nore and probably retained this profile up to the late 18th or early 19th century, after which time the area was levelled and enclosed.