2007:1619 - 49 Main Street, Cashel, Tipperary

Testing was carried out as a condition of planning at the Brian Boru Bar, 49 Main Street, Cashel. The site was outside the line of the medieval wall surrounding the town. The line of the wall has been identified by Thomas in The Walled Towns of Ireland (1992) and in the Urban Archaeological Survey County Tipperary South Riding (Farrelly and Fitzpatrick 1993). The line as represented on both the Urban Survey and Thomas’s mapping is based on extant remains, cartographic and historical sources. Both sources have concurred on the layout of the walled town and confirm that the development was adjacent to the west side of the town wall, which may have been reduced to ground level at some time in the past. The wall originally extended northwards from the Lower Gate along the line of the east wall of the proposed development site. The existing building is a three-storey, street-fronting structure in a short terrace.
The rear of the Brian Boru Bar comprised a large modern extension on to the original bar area. There appears to be no surviving aboveground remains of the town wall at the location of the extension to the rear of the bar.
The proposed development was for the demolition of a derelict dance hall and construction of a new four-storey music venue/theatre consisting of basement, ground, first and second floors with ancillary bars, signage and site works. Three test-trenches were excavated, one in the backyard parallel to the town wall and two in the ballroom.
The trenches revealed the area was heavily disturbed over the years. The presence of large boulders and quarried stone suggests that a previous building had been demolished and dumped within the site. The line of the town wall forms the present property boundary between the Brian Boru Bar and adjoining building, and will not be subject to impact in the course of development.