2010:423 - 21 and 22 Rose Inn Street, Kilkenny, Kilkenny

Monitoring was undertaken during the refurbishment of a site at 21 and 22 Rose Inn Street, Kilkenny. The refurbishment involved the reduction of ground levels within an existing flat-roofed extension to the rear of No. 22 to create an overall ground level which is level with Rose Inn Street.
The stratigraphy uncovered in the rear of the site consisted of 0.1m of concrete floor overlying an average depth of 0.3m of sandy/ashy concrete and red-brick rubble overlying approximately 0.6m of moderately compacted, dark-brown, garden soil containing inclusions of clay pipe and white china.
The location of the site at the base of a rise of ground to its west appears to have resulted in a high ground-water level, which had been addressed in the later post-medieval period by the excavation of at least two large soak pits through the soft, grey, silty clays which underlay the post-medieval garden soils.
As a natural subsoil horizon was not uncovered at the site, it cannot be clearly stated whether the site was occupied in the medieval period. The discovery of a single medieval sherd at the base of an underpinning pit excavated along the site’s south-western boundary wall would, however, suggest that it was. It is therefore possible that more substantial archaeological deposits remain preserved at the site below the formation level of the recent development.