2007:972 - 11 Patrick Street, Kilkenny, Kilkenny

An assessment with testing was undertaken at 11 Patrick Street, Kilkenny, in advance of a proposed development comprising alterations to the existing building and construction of a three-storey office building to the rear. The site is located on the east side of Patrick Street within the zone of archaeological potential for Kilkenny city. The site is defined by a high random rubble wall on the northern and eastern sides, which is a protected structure. The adjoining site to the south has previously been excavated (Excavations 1999, No. 450, 99E0757).
Four test-trenches were excavated within the proposed development in 2006 (Excavations 2006, No. 1061). Subsequent excavation took place in January and February 2007 under an extension to the same licence. Most of the archaeological features recorded during this excavation were pits, 26 in total; two walls and a well were also excavated.
The evidence from the excavation suggests that the area originally formed part of an Anglo-Norman burgage plot, which was intensively utilised. No evidence of a medieval structure was recorded on site. Any form of medieval house site may have been destroyed during the construction of the buildings that fronted on to Patrick Street or they may have been located further west, under the footpath and/or road surface. The archaeological material recorded at Patrick Street is comparable to that of earlier excavations in this part of Kilkenny city and in particular to the adjoining site to the south.
The majority of the cut features at the site were pits, 26 in total. The pits were in general subcircular and oval in plan, and, with the exception of pit C.98, were on average 2.06m long by 1.36m wide by 0.61m deep. The fills of the pits were a mix of dark-grey/brown silty clay with occasional animal bone and pottery. Pit C.98 was the largest on site. It measured 6.6m by 3.2m by 0.95m. The function of the pits seems to be domestic. None of the pit fills were burnt in situ or contained a large amount of charcoal. Twenty-one of the pits were dated to the medieval period on the basis of the artefactual evidence. The inclusion of pottery sherds and animal bone in the pits would indicate that the final use of most of them was as a refuse dump. In general, the fact that it was not possible to refit many of the sherds suggests that only partial vessels were present in most of the deposits. The function of the very large pit, C.98, at the eastern end of the site, is uncertain. It is likely that this very large pit was a number of intercutting pits with very similar fills. Alternatively C.98 may have been a large drainage feature; the base at the south end sloped steeply to the east.
The quantity of redeposited subsoil on site suggests that the pits were excavated and the excavated soil placed alongside. The subsoil masks some of the earlier pits; e.g. layer C.88 masked the fills of three pits. Some of the pits included a lens of redeposited subsoil near their bases. This suggests that a small layer of subsoil was placed over the initial contents of the pit, maybe to seal it. The contents of the pit may have been noxious or may have been sealed to prevent it being blown out of the pit. There is very little space between many of the pits at the eastern end of the site. It is not likely that many of the pits were open at the same time as access would have been difficult.
The well at the western end of the site was similar to a well excavated by Ian Doyle at the rear of 4 Rose Inn Street, Kilkenny (Excavations 2002, No. 1027, 01E0980), c. 200m to the north of the site. It is difficult to date stone-lined wells. The well was backfilled with 19th- and 20th-century pottery, brick and glass. The cut of the well aperture disturbed medieval and post-medieval layers and pits.
One stone-lined cesspit was recorded at the western end of the site. Stone-lined pits are commonly used as cesspits (Hurley 1997, 22; Hurley and Scully 1997, 245; Cleary and Hurley 2003, 89). As the layer C.19 containing evidence of seeds was immediately above the basal fill of the pit, it is possible that it had been partially cleaned out prior to its cessation of use as a cesspit. It was subsequently backfilled with mortar and building rubble and was sealed by a layer of cobbles near the top.
Pottery from the site was examined by Sara Camplese. The medieval pottery, recovered from fifteen of the pits, was a mix of Leinster cooking ware, Kilkenny-type coarseware and Kilkenny-type. A total of 183 sherds were counted from the site (after refitting) and almost 72% of these were medieval wares, with types dating from the late 12th to the 14th centuries. Of the medieval pottery recovered 73% was Kilkenny-type, which dates to the 13th/14th centuries. The forms of Kilkenny-type pottery recovered are table vessels, mainly jugs. The remaining 51 sherds are post-medieval and date from the 17th to late 19th century.
The animal bone assemblage from this site was examined by Margaret McCarthy. Cattle and sheep dominate the samples, with pigs being present in lesser amounts. As is the case with most urban settlements of the period, horses are poorly represented and there is no evidence to suggest that these animals were eaten. The range of animal types found is quite narrow for an urban site but it is noteworthy that domestic fowl dominate the post-medieval samples. The relative abundance of cattle, sheep and pig fragments falls within the range of other urban sites in Ireland. The one feature that stands out is the absence of other potential food animals such as wild game and wild fowl, food resources that would have been plentiful in the local environment.
The plant remains assemblage from this site was examined by Penny Johnston. Plant remains were recorded in the fills of twelve of the pits. The proportion of cereal grains differed from sample to sample but wheat and oats were the most common cereal types from all samples. Pit C.53 was not truncated by any of the other pits. It contained the largest quantities of oat and wheat grains and a much smaller proportion of indeterminate grains than any other of the pits. The low density of the plant remains in all samples, except pit C.40, suggests that these are carbonised plant remains included in discarded waste scattered across the site. The rich sample from pit C.40 may have been taken from close to a source of burnt grains such as a hearth or kiln. The proportions of cereal grains retrieved, while markedly different from those found at the adjacent site of 12 Patrick Street (Stratham’s Garage site, 99E0757), had good parallels in some other plant remains assemblages from medieval and post-medieval deposits from Kilkenny city.
References
Cleary, R. and Hurley, M. 2003 Excavations in Cork city 1984–2000. Cork.
Hurley, M. 1997 Excavations at the North Gate, Cork, 1994. Cork.
Hurley, M. and Scully, O. 1997 Late Viking Age and medieval Waterford excavations 1986–1992. Waterford.