2010:655 - WATERFORD: Deanery Gardens, Cathedral Square, Waterford

The medieval stone undercroft in the Deanery Gardens, Cathedral Square, Waterford, was part-excavated by Celie O Rahilly in 1983 (E293). The east and west walls were exposed in excavations by Orla Scully in 1998 (Excavations 1998, No. 639, 98E447). Waterford City Council is building a museum which will span the undercroft. The 13th-century building will be at the lower ground floor of the museum. The building is at present undergoing conservation and internal repointing. Stone-accurate drawings of the walls and windows were undertaken in areas to be restored. A full photo-rectified study of the undercroft prior to it being repointed was undertaken. In order to create access to disabled persons, it was necessary to remove the base of later steps into a side entrance to the building, which had been created through an erstwhile window, possibly in the 19th century. The steps sealed a layer of mortar-rich construction material containing post-medieval pottery, clay-pipe fragments and some coal fragments. The steps had themselves cut through the upper levels of a medieval pit, which contained animal bone and sherds of local and imported medieval pottery.