2020:205 - CASHEL: St Francis Abbey (Roselawn Close), Tipperary

Archaeological monitoring of excavation for electricity ducting took place on 31 August 2020 within the grounds of the Old Convent in Cashel and on site of the Franciscan Friary.

A single 0.3m-wide box trench of 1m in depth and 66m in length was mechanically excavated. A 0.2m-thick, 6m long grey brown silty lens was encountered in the northern end of the trench (NGR 207879 140601 to NGR 207884 140599). This archaeological stratum was also found at a depth (c.0.4m) consistent with that of the medieval material encountered by Coughlan during his 2006 test excavation (06E1078). This silt layer retained eleven bone fragments, of which six were identified by an osteo-archaeologist as cattle and one was from a cat. One of the cattle bones, a rib, was found to have a butcher or cut mark on it. This is consistent with a medieval debris or refuse layer found throughout the town.