2008:718 - Kilkenny Courthouse, Parliament Street, Kilkenny, Kilkenny

A crew of up to 25 people carried out an excavation at the rear of the Courthouse building on Parliament Street within the environs of Kilkenny city between May and November 2008. This excavation was the result of a testing programme carried out in advance of construction work within the development area (Excavations 2007, No. 969, 07E0549). After promising results from the investigative trenches dug in 2007 and further to discussions with the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, work started on the site in May 2008.
The excavation work was commissioned by the Office of Public Works on behalf of the Court Service. The development consisted of part demolition of 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 the public toilets and lock-ups that fronted out on to Bateman Quay. In addition to the retention of historical features and the protection of the rear façade of the Courthouse, a four-storey office block, linking an atrium and other elements, will be constructed on the cleared site.
The area of the Courthouse is recorded on the earliest maps (Roque 1758, Byron 1781) as the site of the 13th-century ‘Grace’s Castle’, which was given to Kilkenny city by James Grace in 1568 when it became the County Gaol. It served as a gaol until the 18th century, when it was turned into a courthouse.
The excavation produced intriguing evidence for the long history of the site, while showing aspects of the many characteristics of medieval life within the wider city. The rear of the Courthouse and Gaol was a very rich archaeological area producing over 1000 contexts which resulted in over 200 excavated features. There were 4000 sherds of medieval pottery and 2000 sherds of post-medieval pottery recovered.
Almost 500 pieces of extremely well preserved wood were recovered from the site. This wood consisted of stakes and timbers from the wood-lined cesspits. All of the oak timbers recovered are suitable for dendrochronological dating. Of the eight wooden artefacts recovered, one was identified as a maple wooden mazer. Eleven coins, three brass artefacts, 226 iron artefacts, 30 bone artefacts, two copper-alloy objects with gold and 30 bone artefacts were excavated from the many features identified during the digging process. Pottery provisionally dated from the late 14th to 20th century was recovered from the site.
Ninety-three soil samples were recovered, processed and sent to the relevant specialists for both environmental and archaeoentomology analysis. All of the finds and samples are currently being analysed by the relevant specialists. Conservation work on finds will ensure the cleaning and preservation of the artefacts to a high standard. The quantity and quality of the finds recovered from the site was excellent and will enhance a greater understanding of medieval activity.
The site consisted of remnants of medieval domestic activity revealed as pits, wood-lined cesspits and plot boundaries/burgage plots. These cesspits and pits had large amounts of domestic refuse. The burgage plots/property divisions were evident on the site as shallow, long ditches orientated both north–south and east–west. These earliest phases of activity were sealed by the introduction of soil layers possibly from another area of Kilkenny. The pottery provisionally identified from these features dates from the mid-12th to 14th century.
The evidence for the later phases of activity was directly linked to the changes in the usage of the building. The structure changed from domestic (Grace’s Castle) to civil use, firstly as a gaol in 1566 and then as both gaol and courthouse in 1794.
During this post-medieval phase there was evidence for land consolidation. Several ditches excavated were filled with porous building material, possibly to assist in the draining of the land. The site was located within the old flood-plain of the River Nore. This was evident during the excavation by the continuous problem of flooding encountered on the site.
Twenty-three inhumations were recorded to the rear of the site. The burials excavated were probably felons executed within the confines of the prison environment.
Detailed historical and architectural research is ongoing. Specialist archaeological analysis coupled with the site archive will produce an unequivocal social, environmental and domestic history of the area within Kilkenny city from the 13th to the 20th century.