2010:414 - Kilfane Demesne, Kilkenny

Test excavations were conducted at Kilfane Demesne as part of a pre-planning application assessment of a single-house development. The proposed development area was positioned in the environs of a rich medieval and post-medieval archaeological landscape which includes the remains of a deserted medieval village (KK028–013005) and the parish church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (KK028–013001) (national monument). The site was situated immediately inside the boundary wall of Kilfane Demesne and on the north-west edge of the deserted village. The testing was preceded by a geophysical survey and the main archaeological feature identified in both the archaeological geophysics and test-excavations was a c. 3m-wide metalled trackway that ran east–west in the general direction of Kilfane medieval church. On either side of the trackway were similarly aligned ditches which a sondage indicated were 1.6m wide and 0.7m deep. The only dating evidence for the trackway derived from the horseshoe fragments and nails from the fill of the ditch that may be dated on the basis of typology to the medieval period. The only other features identified were two large pits on the north side of the track, one of which was probably a drying kiln. Further excavation and monitoring was recommended and was included as a condition of planning.