2015:289 - Filling Station, Kilkenny Street, (R693), Freshford, Kilkenny

Test trenching was carried out in advance of the redevelopment of a Service Station at the location of the existing filling station, Kilkenny Street, Freshford. The development site is close to the medieval site S. Lachtain's Church and Graveyard (KK013-023001). In total five test trenches were excavated.

In the second half of the 18th century the land surveyors John Longfield and John Brownrigg created a map of the town of Freshford. This map depicts St Lachtain’s Church and graveyard, and shows the boundary between the proposed development site and the graveyard as being in the same location as the modern boundary wall. The Longfield map also shows an east-west orientated street-fronted building identified as ‘Inn’ at the southern end of the proposed development site. A north-south orientated building is depicted to the rear of the ‘Inn’ building. This second building is also located within the area of the proposed development and is likely to have been a carriage shed, stables, or some other outhouse associated with the ‘Inn’ building.

Parallel mortar-bonded stone walls and a compacted floor surface were identified in one of the test trenches. The location of these features indicate that they could represent the remains of the 'Inn' building depicted on the 18th-century map of the area. Artefacts recovered from the floor surface indicate an 18th-19th-century date.

Due to the possibility that further earlier archaeological contexts were preserved in situ, under those already exposed, a recommendation to preserve by avoidance was accepted by the developer, and the National Monuments Service.

Kilmainham, Mountmellick, Co. Laois