County: Kilkenny Site name: CBS Secondary School, James’s Street, Kilkenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KK019-026 Licence number: 21E0564
Author: Sinéad Marshall; Shanarc Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Post-medieval & modern
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 650272m, N 656056m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.653365, -7.257002
Monitoring of excavations relating to site boundary development works at the CBS Secondary School (James's Street and New Building Lane), and on part of the lands of Blessed Felix House (Tilbury Place), Kilkenny, was carried out from September to November 2021.
The site contains a recorded archaeological monument, namely an excavated burial (KK019-026168), which lay within the north-west corner of the site but outside the footprint of the current works. The site is in proximity of other recorded burials within the wider precinct of the Dominican Black Abbey (KK019-026021) and its graveyard (KK019-026176) to the north. A previous archaeological investigation (licence number 17E0141) identified burial remains within the Blessed Felix House gardens; this lay just outside the footprint of the site and current works to the east.
The development site is within the constraints area for the Historic Town of Kilkenny (KK019-026), sited immediately adjacent to, or partly on, the medieval Hightown defences (KK019-026001). Blessed Felix House may incorporate elements of the medieval Tilbury Tower on the City Wall. A ‘font’ (KK019-026117) and statue (KK019-026118) were recorded as located on the wider CBS Secondary School and Blessed Felix House grounds.
Features with archaeological potential were identified during monitoring of wall foundation and pathway excavation works. The exposed remains comprised a truncated pit in Trench 1 (C.9), and in Trench 3 a path (C.15) and a clay bank (C.12). The features were subject to archaeological excavation following an updated licence application. The bank is of uncertain date, the pit or ditch may be of post-medieval date, while the path is possibly associated with 18th-19th-century garden layouts recorded on historic mapping. Disarticulated bone fragments found in topsoil/modern made ground are currently undergoing specialist analysis as to whether they may be related to the Black Abbey burial ground, which once extended across the north of the development site.
Unit 39a, Hebron Business Park, Hebron Road, Kilkenny
