2007:969 - Kilkenny Courthouse, Parliament Street, Kilkenny, Kilkenny

Testing was undertaken at the request of the Office of Public Works in advance of a proposed development at Kilkenny Courthouse, Parliament Street, Kilkenny. The proposed development is to consist of partly demolishing existing buildings and walls in the eastern part of the Courthouse complex, including the four-storey extension at the north-west of the site and public toilets and lockups at the south. In addition to retention of historical features and protection of the rear façade of the Courthouse, a four-storey office block, linking atrium and other elements and services will be constructed on the cleared site.
The site is located within the archaeological constraint zone for Kilkenny city, and is immediately adjacent to the site of Grace’s Castle and within the site of the later County Gaol. The Courthouse is a protected structure. A site of industrial archaeological significance was identified by the desktop study (Joyce 2005, 32), representing a well located to the rear of the Courthouse building beside the stone stairway marked on the first-edition 6-inch OS map (1837). The site is located between Parliament Street and the River Nore, an area which from c. 1207 formed part of the medieval Irishtown south of the Breagagh River, and north of the earlier Hightown. The land to either side of Parliament Street was divided into long narrow burgage plots which would have contained a house and shop on the street frontage, with outhouses, sheds, yards, gardens and orchards to the rear. The Urban Archaeological Survey (Farrelly et al. 1993) identifies a castle built immediately to the west of the proposed development by William LeGros in the 13th century. In 1566, James Grace gave the castle to the corporation to use as the County Gaol. The Parliament Street Courthouse dates from 1786, when it was established in the upper part of the soon-to-be-closed County Gaol, with substantial remodelling in the early 19th century. The lower part was converted to the City Gaol by 1824, which served as the Bridewell from 1871 to 1946.
The testing programme was undertaken on 6–8 June 2007. Five test-trenches were opened with a mechanical excavator fitted with a 1.6m-wide grading bucket. A combined length of 50m of test-trenches was excavated. A number of features of archaeological interest were identified. In assessing the potential impact of the proposed development, it is important to note the limited extent of the site that was available for test-trenching at this point.
A grave containing a human burial was identified in Trench 4 and preserved in situ. Initial indications would suggest a date in the later 18th or 19th century. In the 18th and 19th centuries the position of the grave would have been in enclosed ground to the east of the County Gaol/Courthouse building. No construction works are proposed for the location of the burial so the development should have no impact on it. There is a possibility of additional burials in the same area, possibly associated with the County Gaol. As construction works will come within 3m of the location of the burial, it is considered that the development has the potential to have an impact on currently unidentified human remains which may be present.
A consistent dark-brown/black organic fill (C10) was noted as the lowest identified layer in all five trenches. The base of this layer was not established in any of the trenches, but its upper surface was generally identified between 1.3m and 1.55m below the current ground level; it was at least 0.8m in thickness and it appeared to extend across the entire site. A single small sherd of green-glazed medieval pottery was recovered from C10. This layer may represent open ground that was present prior to late medieval or post-medieval development of this portion of the plot, and may conceal or contain remains relating to activities within the medieval burgage plot to the east of Grace’s Castle. It is considered that all construction work or services which extend more than 1.25m below current ground surface would have a negative impact on this probable medieval layer, and on any currently unidentified features that may potentially exist within or below it.
The subsurface remains of a number of walls were identified by the testing programme, in Trenches 1–3 and 5. All appear to be post-medieval or early modern in date. Individually, none of these walls appear to have any great archaeological significance. However, their dating and extent is currently unclear, as only short lengths were exposed, and taken together their full plans and chronological context would represent a significant addition to an understanding of the development of the Courthouse site. In each instance the surviving upper surface of the wall is 0.5–0.75m below the current tarmac, and all would be negatively impacted on by the proposed development.
The well identified in Trench 3 is not the well shown on the 1841 OS 5-foot plan. That well would appear to be concealed beneath the modern structure to the west of Trench 2, where trenching was not possible at this stage. The well in Trench 3 is not shown on any available cartographic source, but from the nature of connecting pipes and manhole access it appears to have been in recent use and may be modern in origin. The development will have a direct impact on this well, but this impact is unlikely to be significant.
The extent of the testing programme was restricted by the extant buildings and services on the site. No testing was possible in the north-western or southern portions of the proposed development. The identification of a probable archaeological layer (C10) at between 1.3m and 1.6m depth in all trenches meant that testing below this depth was limited. In addition, this layer extended below the safe working depth of the largest digger that could operate in the confined space of the Courthouse carpark. As a result, it is considered there is a good likelihood that further archaeological material relating to the medieval burgage plot and the post-medieval/early modern gaol may remain unidentified within the footprint of the proposed development. It is considered that construction could have a high potential impact on unidentified remains.
References
Farrelly, J., Loughran, A. and O’Reilly, B. 1993 Urban archaeological survey: Kilkenny. Unpublished manuscript, RMP files.
Joyce, T. 2005 Draft archaeological and architectural assessment, Kilkenny Courthouse, Parliament St, Kilkenny city. Unpublished assessment. Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.