2006:1830 - CASHEL: Friar Street, Tipperary

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Tipperary Site name: CASHEL: Friar Street

Sites and Monuments Record No.: TI061–025 Licence number: 06E1078

Author: Tim Coughlan, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.

Site type: Historic town and Town defences

Period/Dating: Multi-period

ITM: E 607741m, N 640626m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.516961, -7.885945

An assessment was carried out to study the impact, if any, on the archaeological and historical resource of the proposed development of a five-storey hotel and two commercial buildings of four and three storeys, located to the rear of Friar Street, Cashel, Co. Tipperary. The site is located to the north-east of the site of the medieval St Francis’s Abbey, but no structural remains of the abbey survive today. The west boundary of the site is adjacent to the town walls of Cashel, although there are no standing remains of these walls within 100–150m of the proposed development site. Test-trenching took place on 11–15 December 2006, using a JCB equipped with a flat, toothless bucket. A total of fourteen trenches were excavated within the area of proposed development.

The test-trenches in Area A revealed two ditches at the south-west end of the proposed development. These were both c. 3m wide and were not bottomed, as it was unsafe to enter the trench and hand-excavate sections through these features, but they are likely to be at least over 2.2m in depth. It is likely that the two ditches identified are medieval in date and potentially related to the medieval town defences. The remaining features identified consisted of linear agricultural/drainage features and an isolated area of circular in situ burning. A large deposit of garden soils was identified across Area A that probably dates from the medieval through to the post-medieval period. There was no evidence of any datable diagnostic material within this large garden soil deposit to give a more accurate date range. Structural walls identified within Area A date to the post-medieval period and relate to convent gardens. They are depicted on the first-edition OS map.

9 Albert Terrace, Meath Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow