2012:351 - GOWRAN, Kilkenny

Monitoring of excavation works associated with the laying of a surface water sewer upgrade in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny was undertaken on a phased basis from 3-16 October 2012. The monitoring was commissioned by Kilkenny County Council. The works were carried out under Ministerial Consent as the National Monuments Service considered it likely that subsurface remains of the Town Defences (RMP:KK020-00603) could be encountered.
Prior to the Anglo-Norman invasion Gowran was a political meeting place and a royal residence of the Kings of Ossory. It was developed as the manor of Ballygaveran by the early medieval Butlers. James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, built Gowran Castle in 1385 close to the site of the present castle, and this was the centre of all the Butler lands for much of the 14th century. The only murage grant was in 1414 and this specified a stone wall. However, apart from an 18th-century estate map, there is now little remaining evidence of these town walls. The parish church of St Mary’s was built in the late 13th century and retains some of the fabric of this original structure. It is possibly located on the site of an early monastery. The town was taken by King Robert the Bruce in 1316. Gowran surrendered to Oliver Cromwell on 21 March 1650 following a siege and it is said that its military garrison were hanged. King James I made Gowran a parliamentary borough in 1608 and in 1688 James II granted a Charter of Incorporation to the town. A Magdalene hospital was built outside the walls c. 1578 "for the relief of poor leprous people".
A Zone of Archaeological Potential (KK020-006) has been established for Gowran. The Archaeological Zone comprises a number of elements, of which the following are of relevance to the subject scheme:
Town Defences – KK020-00603
The exact extent of the town defences, comprising composite sections of wall/part rampart and trench, are largely unknown.

Bridge – KK020-006016
This comprises a three-arch rubble stone road bridge over a stream, c. 1800, possibly on the site of an earlier structure. Random rubble stone walls with cut-stone triangular cut-waters to piers, cut-limestone rounded coping to parapets, and paired rendered/mass-concrete buttresses to elongated approach walls. Series of three round arches with squared rubble stone voussoirs, and rubble stone soffits having remains of lime render over.

Holy Well (?) – KK020-006017
This well is indicated on the 25” OS map as an ordinary well and is not named although it is known locally as "St Patrick’s Well”. There are now no visible surface remains of this feature which is located within the construction way leave associated with the scheme The works lay partly within a greenfield area and partly along the Main Street. The sewer terminated at the Gowran River which bordered the greenfield area on the south-west.
Topsoil stripping and some level reductions were undertaken in the vicinity of the possible well prior to trench excavations. No indications of the feature were identified as a result of such investigations. During subsequent trench excavation within the greenfield area it was noted that ground levels had been artificially heightened by approximately 0.5m. These trench excavations also revealed what may be the original location of the well approximately 20m north-east of its marked location. This alternative location was suggested by a damp patch of ground associated with a number of large stones at the base of the pipeline trench.
No archaeological features were noted within the pipeline trench along the Main Street where road formation lay directly upon the natural subsoil.

Byrne Mullins & Associates, 7 Cnoc Na Greine Square, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare