2012:360 - KILKENNY: Ormonde Road, Kilkenny

Monitoring of local authority re-laying of pavement on either side of Ormonde Road revealed the buried remains of the town wall and ditch. The defences here had been broken through for the road in 1816-17 leaving a section of wall and a tower, known as Talbot’s tower, upstanding on the west side of the new thoroughfare. Extensive excavations at Talbot’s tower have been previously reported upon (Excavations 2010, No. 421). The truncated stone ditch revetment—the curtain wall had been completely removed—was 0.9m thick. The town ditch was 5.9m wide and also similar to that previously excavated at Talbot’s tower. The lowest deposits of a 5.2m-wide rampart that extended inside the ditch produced a fragment of 13th-century Kilkenny-type cooking ware. The rampart deposits directly overlay the natural subsoil.