County: Tipperary Site name: Friar Street, Cashel
Sites and Monuments Record No.: TS061-025 Licence number: C430
Author: Mary Henry
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 607529m, N 640747m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.518043, -7.889071
A short section of footpath renewal works were undertaken along the east side of Friar Street. Friar Street is one of the main approach streets, leading from Clonmel and Fethard into the town centre. A medieval gate – Friar’s Gate – stood on the street, close to the junction with Abbey Side (Dualla Road). There is now no trace of this gate or the town wall immediately leading into it at either side above ground level. The works were sited on the footpath, between Abbey Side (Dualla Road) and the main entrance into the RC church. The works extended for a length of c. 64m.
The works entailed the removal of the existing concrete footpath, 1.6-2.115m wide, and replacing it with a paved surface. A duct trench for services was excavated beneath the level of the footpath, at its outer (street) edge, along the entire 64m length. This duct trench had a depth of between 0.6m and 0.7m and of similar width.
The general area of the works, i.e. the footpath and the adjoining car parking bays on the street side which are set at a 90º angle to the footpath, was formerly occupied by houses, a church lodge, a farmyard and lorry yard. These buildings are denoted on the 1st Edition OS map and the 1870s 25 inch OS series.
The works for the renewal of the footpath were very shallow, not exceeding 0.2m. Nothing was uncovered as part of these works. Regarding the deeper trench for the ducting, the more northerly third of the duct trench showed layers very disturbed by modern activity and backfill, including hardcore, plastic bags, mineral cans etc., which probably resulted from the construction of the previous footpath and the parking bay areas.
The southerly two-thirds of the duct trench revealed a number of features that reflected earlier activity in this area – in particular pits and dumps associated with the buildings that formerly stood here and the remains of stone walls or foundations which extended perpendicular to the line of the medieval town wall, and likely to have been associated with the buildings that once stood here. Extensive backfilled loose stone and roughly hewn masonry was excavated from the ducting trench, a legacy of the demolished structures. The finds from the ducting trench were of post-medieval/modern date.
Mary Henry Archaeological Services Ltd, 17 Staunton Row, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
