County: Kilkenny Site name: Old Smithwicks Brewery, Gardens, Kilkenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KK019-026 Medieval City Licence number: 17E0108
Author: Donald Murphy
Site type: Post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 650569m, N 656342m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.655907, -7.252569
Trial Pits
The trial pits succeeded in determining that the concrete screed had been laid above an earlier concrete surface. Excavation of the trial pits stopped at this point as the aim was to establish the presence or absence of a concrete surface below.
Test Trenches
The testing also succeeded in identifying a number of 19th-century features and structures, and in exposing possible late medieval deposits and walls within Trench 1. Trench 1 had been heavily disturbed by the construction of a large concrete sump and manhole as well as the insertion of a number of plastic ducts to the north. Evidence of 19th – 20th-century deposition and fill was exposed at a depth of 1.1m which extended southwards and was also exposed within Trenches 2 and trench 3. The remains of a 19th-century stone structure, depicted on the 1871 and 25” OS maps, were identified at a depth of 1.6m where the corner of a mortared stone and brick wall was exposed.
Probable medieval deposits, including a possible medieval river wall, were exposed at a depth of 1.75m where two layers – a mid-dark grey clay and a sterile brown clay were identified. Similar post-medieval deposits were identified within Trench 2. It measured 1.5m in thickness and lay directly above the natural grey silty clay which represented the river silts. No trace of the canal depicted on the various OS maps was exposed. Instead, the top of a large concrete culvert was exposed which suggests that the canal was improved during the later 20th century. Additional modern services in the form of a concrete duct were exposed to the south.
The same post-medieval mid – dark brown clay was exposed within Trench 3 above the natural grey silty clay. However, here the mortared stone and brick walls of the canal were exposed at a depth of 1.3m. They lay within a post-medieval cut which had been backfilled with a mid-brown clay and stone. This canal is clearly depicted on the 1871 and 25” sheet.
Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit, Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth
