The search to uncover a “lost” Kilkenny village gets underway this week.
The Discovery Programme, centre for archaeology and innovation Ireland, with the National Monuments Service is surveying lands at Dukesmeadows.
The area, at the back of Kilkenny Castle, is understood to be an Outer Ward settlement listed in historical records as Flemingstown which was home to an immigrant artisan community.
Dr David Stone, who is leading the project for the Discovery Programme, said: “this project is a great opportunity to find out if the ‘lost’ settlement of Flemingstown can be located, and better understood in the medieval landscape of Kilkenny.”
He also noted; Using earlier surveys in this area we have been able to identify features that indicate archaeology in the Dukesmeadow, at Kilkenny Castle. The site work this week will use geophysical survey techniques to investigate the area, and once we have examined the results we will share them with the wider community in Kilkenny.”
Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, Archaeologist at the National Monuments Service, has been involved in researching Kilkenny’s heritage for many years. Cóilin said “this settlement takes its name from the Flemish settlers who lived here in the early thirteenth century. The community there included weavers, millers and other artisans, either from the area of Pembrokeshire, where one of William Marshal’s main castles was situated, or possibly they came directly from Flanders, in modern-day Belgium.”
The fieldwork for this survey has been supported by a grant from the Castle Studies Trust. It’s Chairperson, Jeremy Cunnington, said “the Castle Studies Trust is delighted to be funding this survey, as it will help place the great castle in its landscape context and tell us much more about the urban development of Kilkenny.”
Dr John O’Keeffe, Chief Executive Officer with the Discovery Programme welcomed the survey, noting “the work at Kilkenny will be a collaboration of many partners, and I am grateful to our funders, research partners and statutory agencies who have all supported this initiative.”
Dr Stone has this morning outlined what’s been discovered so far on The KCLR Daily;
