2024:701 - 19, 21, Parliament Street, Gardens, Kilkenny, Kilkenny

Archaeological monitoring was carried out of project works associated with conservation works at No. 19 and No. 21 Parliament Street, Kilkenny. Archaeological monitoring was carried intermittently from 2 to 24 October 2024.

Both No. 19 (KK019-026086-) and No. 21 (KK019-026088-) are classified as 16th/17th-century houses. The conservation works were confined to the unoccupied western parts of the buildings. Both houses are probable 16th-century masonry structures, with 17th- or 18th-century interventions, surviving in varying condition of repair. The rear building at No. 19 consists of standing masonry walls, lacking a roof, containing interior infill. Masonry walls stand to roof height with two gables with chimneys. The rear building at No. 21 is a surviving roofed structure, containing a potential original timber roof frame and floors.

Monitoring at No. 19 was focussed on the removal of rubble infill within the structure, and recovering and recording cut stone and any other objects of archaeological significance. Infill at No. 19 was removed by hand by contractors up to a depth of c. 1.5m below initial ground level. Infill removal was carried out under archaeological supervision. At c. 1.5m below initial ground level further excavation or removal of infill ceased, on the recommendation of the consultant engineers. Excavation below this level was considered unsafe, and the engineers did not want to negatively affect the structural integrity of a water-rolled stone wall at the base of the occupied residence at No. 19 (abutting upstanding historic ruins on north-east side).

The excavated infill material was interpreted as dark brown garden soil heavily mixed with building rubble, containing roof slate and red brick fragments, along with plastics, modern glass bottles and metal (oil cans). The infill was interpreted as having been deposited in modern times. The floor level of the historic ruin at No. 19 was not reached. The removal of infill exposed the cut stone arch of the fireplace in the south-west gable of the building.

No archaeological deposits or features were uncovered, and no archaeological objects were retrieved during monitoring of infill removal. A worked stone forming a segment of a jamb for an ope at No. 19 was recovered from the infill and stored in the interior; the stone had two dressed faces with a bevelled angle between the dressed faces. A few additional angular, cut limestone blocks or building stone retrieved from the infill were similarly stored in the building interior.

The mortar in several areas of No. 19 was racked out by the stonemason and repointed with lime mortar. The repointing work was confined to small test areas. An area examined by the monitoring archaeologist was on the interior face of the chimney breast on the south-west gable.

One piece of stonework at the first floor doorway in the south-west gable of No. 19 – on the north side of the door jamb – which was found to be free standing and in danger of imminent collapse, was removed by the stone masons while an archaeologist was present on site.

No other structural intervention at No. 19 Parliament Street was carried out under archaeological supervision.

Archaeological monitoring at No. 21 Parliament Street was limited to a single day, comprising a review of the roof space timbers in with the consultant engineers and timber specialist.

The roof structure and timbers, at second floor level, are described in a report by AMS (Donoghue et al 2023). The roof space was accessed from scaffolding, following the removal of a few sheets of the corrugated sheeting. The roof timbers are largely intact, and work involving the reinforcement of, or limited replacement of timbers was carried out under the direction of the consultant engineers and timber specialist.

Consolidation work on the timbers of No. 21 was kept to the minimum necessary to stabilize and weatherproof the roof. Timbers were added to the wall plates and king beam. The monitoring archaeologist consulted with the consultant engineers on the work. An archaeologist was not present for any dendrochronology samples taken.

Separate monitoring reports for No. 19 and No. 20 were submitted individually to the NMS.