2014:025 - GRAIGUENAMANAGH: Main Street, Kilkenny

Monitoring was undertaken of the Graiguenamanagh Village Renewal Scheme. The works were located along Main Street, a short section of Upper Main Street, the east end of High Street, the west end of Abbey Street and the west end of the Quays. All works were located within the core of the historic town. Located within the heart of Graiguenamanagh is Duiske Abbey, a large Cistercian Abbey founded in 1204.

The main aspect of the ground works were footpath renewal and trenching to replace overhead ESB cables. In addition, a live stone-lined culvert was partially replaced with a new storm pipe.

The excavations for the footpath renewal were 0.3m deep whilst the trenches for the ducting averaged 0.75m in depth. The excavation for the stone-lined culvert ranged in depth between 0.7m and 1m.

The remains of five cobbled surfaces were found during the course of the ground works. All were of post-medieval date, associated with the development of the town following the demise of Duiske Abbey.

A number of walls were exposed in the course of the ground works. During excavations for a new ESB pole along the northern side of High Street, close to the eastern wall bounding the Duiske river, the remains of a wall were exposed 0.6m below ground level. It had a height of 0.9m. Aligned north-west/south-east, a 1m length of walling was exposed in the southern part of the excavated area. Sealed and contained by 19th- and 20th-century rubble, the wall was well constructed with large, roughly-hewn stones and partially dressed rectangular stones but there was no trace of mortar. This wall was somewhat enigmatic as the bridge is aligned east-west whilst the wall was aligned north-west/south-east. It had an incompatible direction with the current road and bridge layout. It was considered this wall was not part of a building as it would have projected into the road. However, it may have been part of a parapet wall for an earlier river crossing.

Four other walls were encountered. The most significant was incorporated into a live stone-lined culvert of likely Victorian date. Its top extended just under the footpath along much of the eastern side of Main Street. However, along a section of this culvert, its western wall was of substantial proportions. This western wall had a maximum depth of 0.7m, occurred 0.25-0.3m below ground level and at one location it was established to have a width of 1.1m. It was located just to the south of the Main Street/High Street junction, on the east side of the street, and 2.2m (average) out from the front façades of the buildings. Aligned north-south, it was three courses high, randomly coursed and built predominantly of sandstone and occasional granite pieces. The stones were of irregular size, extending up to 0.4m x 0.2m and both rounded and angular in shape and bonded with a brittle mortar. This west wall was in contrast to the normal western wall of the culvert found in the southern part of Main Street and to that of the east wall of the culvert. For instance, at the south end of Main Street, it had a width of 0.25m and was between 0.2m and 0.6m deep. All along the length of the culvert the east wall was c. 0.25m wide and did not exceed two/three courses high, typical of a late 19th/20th-century culvert. Its thickness, composition and location suggested this wall was of much earlier provenance to the stone-lined culvert. Its location and alignment suggested it may have been part of the West Range of Duiske Abbey which comprised the lay-brothers dayroom, reflectory and storerooms on the ground floor and lay-brothers dormitory on the first floor.

The second wall on Main Street was found at two locations: one at a street crossing, which was subsequently abandoned, and the other within an ESB ducting trench on the west side of Main Street.

Extending on an east-west alignment, it extended for a length of 2.3m along the eastern half of the street. Its southern face more or less coincided with the northern edge of the trench. Directly below the road surface, it was at least 1m high and built of medium to large pieces of sandstone. No bonding material was apparent. This wall may have been cut at its eastern end by the west wall of the culvert which extended along the east side of Main Street. It also had been truncated at its western end by the Main Drainage Scheme. This wall re-appeared within the ESB ducting trench on the west side of the street, in front of the northern end of Barrons’ Clothes Shop.

Two further walls were found along the west side of Main Street. The first [F9] was uncovered 0.9m to the east of the north pilaster of the south entrance to Hughes property and occurred at a very shallow depth. This wall extended across the excavated area and extended beneath the front wall of Hughes’ building. Exposed for a length of 2.47m (east-west), it was 1.2m wide and had an exposed depth of 0.47m. It had been truncated on its western side by the trench for the watermain and a manhole. Another wall  uncovered [F10], was abutted by wall [F9]. Aligned north-south, this wall was extant for a length of 2.3m (north-south), was 0.87m wide and had an exposed depth of 0.35m. It was considered that this was an internal wall abutted by [F.9] which suggests an extension built on after the construction of [F10] with the eastern side of [F9] being part of the original structure. Although no conclusive dating evidence relating to these two walls was found it is considered they are of medieval provenance based on their materials and construction method in conjunction with their overall form and size.