2008:721 - St Mary’s Lane, Kilkenny, Kilkenny

Excavations were undertaken in St Mary’s Lane, Kilkenny city, on behalf of Bord Gáis Éireann in advance of pipe laying. No previous investigations had been carried out at the precise location of the trench prior to this excavation. However, previous excavations and test-excavations carried out to the east, west and north of the trench location (by Ken Hanley, Excavations 2000, No. 550, 00E0712; by Sinéad Phelan, Excavations 2003, No. 1025, 03E1856; and by Ian Doyle, Excavations 2003, No. 1024, 03E0572) had uncovered in situ medieval burials associated with St Mary’s graveyard to the east. Excavations for previous gas-pipe trenches in St Mary’s Lane were carried out by Ken Hanley in 2000 and by Ian Doyle in 2003. The latter excavation had yielded the remains of eleven burials.
After consultation with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government it was considered expedient to carry out the 2008 excavation under an extension and alteration of the licence granted to Ian Doyle in 2003. The trench was excavated between 14 and 18 January 2008.
St Mary’s Lane is located within Kilkenny city centre. It lies within the zone of archaeological potential for Kilkenny, to the rear of Parliament Street. It runs alongside the southern, western and northern sides of the boundary wall of St Mary’s Church and graveyard. Originally the graveyard was much larger, incorporating the laneway (and possibly extending further beyond it), and intact burials extend beneath the road surface. At some point between the 14th and the 16th century the laneway was created, both delimiting the graveyard and reducing its extent, with intact burials below the surface.
The excavations were carried out within a footprint which measured 0.3m long, 0.5m wide and 0.75m deep. One deposit noted in the base in the southern end of the trench represented the upper levels of medieval activity, albeit slightly disturbed. Disarticulated skeletal material as well as medieval pottery sherds were retrieved from the layer; a sherd of post-medieval pottery from this deposit indicates disturbance.
The base of the trench was covered with thick plastic to preserve any possible medieval deposits in situ prior to the backfilling and pipe-laying.
This programme of excavation has confirmed findings of previous investigations that archaeological material including human remains survives beneath St Mary’s Lane. The impact of the pipeline on this material was kept to a minimum and the limited archaeological material exposed was fully resolved.