County: Kilkenny Site name: Castle Gardens, Castle Road, Kilkenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: Unlicensed Monitoring
Author: Edel Barry & Marion Sutton; Shanarc Archaeeology Ltd.
Site type: Urban, Post-Medieval
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 650917m, N 655514m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.648434, -7.247554
Unlicensed archaeological monitoring of groundworks associated with the construction of a permitted two-storey dwelling at Castle Gardens, off Castle Road, in Kilkenny city was carried out to fulfil a condition of the grant of planning granted by Kilkenny County Council.
The findings of archaeological monitoring are consistent with the use of the development site for agricultural/horticultural use, with features comprising drains and pits likely relating to post-medieval (i.e. from late 17th century) land drainage and management. This is in line with documentary and cartographic records, which identify the development site to the extra-mural gardens associated with Kilkenny Castle.
Stratigraphic evidence shows the development site to comprise of made ground up to 1m deep above the natural subsoil. The artefact assemblage identified to made layers may have been introduced to the site as a result of horticultural or gardening activities and the practice of manuring and depositing household waste in a garden setting. The artefacts can be uncontextual as a result, and may have been introduced to the site from elsewhere. Amongst the artefact assemblage are finds of a late 17th/18th century date, with the majority of the material being 18th/19th century in date.
Stratigraphic evidence also revealed extensive disturbance by modern services extending at least 3.7m into the site from the north-west boundary, which had disturbed an earlier concrete slab and drain, identified as possible infrastructure associated with the extensive greenhouse shown on 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps to the immediate north-west of the development site.
No significant archaeological evidence related to the nearby recorded monuments in the grounds of Kilkenny Castle, or associated with the early medieval ecclesiastical remains at St Patrick's graveyard, was found in the course of monitoring.
The artefact assemblage recovered was primarily from an unstratified context, recovered during topsoil stripping, or from made ground up to 1m deep at the site. A small number of clay pipe stem and pottery finds, with highly fragmented animal bone, were recovered from Feature 3 (drain), Feature 4 (possible soakage pit), and Feature 5 (possible pit or deposit).
A total of 12 clay pipe stem fragments were recovered; a generally undiagnostic group lacking definite features that may range in date from the late 17th/early 18th to 19th centuries (Victor Buckley, 02.06.2020, pers. comm.)
A total of 24 sherds of pottery were recovered, including the rim of a North Devon gravel tempered large bowl or possible pancheon from the surface of Feature 3 (drain). The production of these wares was centered on the towns of Bideford and Barnstaple in North Devon with a large-scale export trade in the 17th century to Ireland in particular (Clare McCutcheon, 02.06.2020, pers. comm.) The majority of the pottery assemblage comprises glazed and unglazed red earthenwares (18th-19th-century date), including a sherd of mottled or treacle ware (18th century), and whitewares/creamwares. The pottery assemblage indicates a generally later 17th- to 18th-century date; the whitewares/creamwares recovered amongst the red earthenwares up to 0.4m below the topsoil-stripped surface would bring the date at this level more to the later 18th/early 19th century (Clare McCutcheon, 02.06.2020, pers. comm.)
A total of 2 shards of pane glass were recovered, assigned to a similar date range, late 17th/early 18th century, based on a shard with a 'grozed' or nibbled edge, to 18th/19th century (Jo Moran, 21.06.2021, pers. comm.)
Animal bone at the site, mixed undiagnostic and diagnostic fragments, is representative of large and medium sized mammals and domestic fowl, with fragments recovered from Feature 3, drain and Feature 4, possible soakage pit, identified to species, comprising cow ankle bone, skull, sacrum, sternum and carpels (Margaret McCarthy, 11.09.2020, pers. comm.) A leg bone fragment from a domestic fowl was recovered in an unstratified context.
Unit 39a, Hebron Business Park, Hebron Road, Kilkenny
