County: Kilkenny Site name: 84 High Street and St Mary's Lane, Gardens, Kilkenny City
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 23E0351
Author: Rob Lynch, Neil Organ and Maria Woodlock
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 650547m, N 655878m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.651739, -7.252965
Archaeological monitoring took place from 1-10 May 2023 due to an upgrade to the waste water network being required at 84 High Street and St Mary's Lane, Kilkenny City. The development site is located within the zone of archaeological potential for the historic settlement of Kilkenny. Additionally, the development areas are located immediately west of the Tholsel/Town Hall and to the east is the Medieval Mile Museum located within the grounds of St Mary's Church and graveyard. Previous investigations in the area have resulted in substantial finds of archaeological significance, therefore, monitoring of groundworks associated with this development site were carried out.
Archaeological monitoring of ground disturbance took place intermittently and confirmed that these areas had been significantly disturbed by the previous insertion of earlier services. Further works comprised the hand excavation of a narrow trench for waste water connection from the development building at No. 84 High Street to the city mains. The location of the water mains was previously unknown. The trench was originally planned to run perpendicular to the development building (east-west), however, a cellar roof associated with the building was discovered during excavations, and as a result the trench design changed to avoid damaging the structural remains. The cellar roof extended into the trench for a length of 2m at a depth of 0.2m below the current ground level; it was decided to change the route of the trench to run north to south, towards the corner of the building to the north in order to avoid the cellar. The cellar roof had been covered with blue plastic possibly when it was exposed during the pavement installation at a previous date. The main trench measured 5m in length and was 0.4m wide and was hand excavated to a depth of 0.4m with the use of shovels and jackhammers. The new trench measured 4m in length, 0.4m wide and 0.4m deep. Both trenches were heavily disturbed by services. Stratigraphy consisted of 0.1m of paving, overlying 0.1-0.4m of made ground.
The excavations did not expose any previously undisturbed ground levels. No features or finds of archaeological significance were identified during the course of these works.
c/o IAC Ltd, Unit G1 Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
