Dovecote in Collegepark

The foundations of a circular 12th/13th-century masonry structure (ext. diam. 8.5m – 9m), possibly a dovecote, excavated by Ian Doyle (01E0821) at College Park on the N bank of the River Nore 75m N of Kilkenny Castle (KK019-026078-) (Doyle & O’Meara 2004, unpublished; Doyle 2005, 32-42). In 1375 a dovecote in ‘a great park opposite the gate of the castle' was noted and in 1391-3 'dove-cots' formed part of the property at Kilkenny Castle that was assigned by Hugh le Despenser to James Butler, third earl of Ormond (Curtis 1934, vol. 2, no. 201, 141; no. 207, 145). 'One pigeon house' formed part of the estate of the Manor of Kilkenny as noted in a 1546 inquisition of James Butler, earl of Ormond (Curtis 1937, vol. 4, no. 361, 302). A 1537 document also refers to a dovecote situated within a meadow in the ward of St John's on the north bank of the Nore: 'The Verdyt of the Commoners of the Town of Kilkenny', ‘…they present that to the same Castell belong ... a garden at Saynt Johnes, and a culverhouse [dovecote] in the medowes aforsaid’ (Hore and Graves 1880, 129). The 'medowes' can be identified as the College Park for in the deed whereby the Duke of Ormonde in 1684 endowed the school at Kilkenny, he gives to it 'all ye large mansion house in Kilkenny, now made use of for a school-house, &c., and meadow thereto adjoining, conmionly called Pigeon-house meadow' (Hore and Graves 1870, 129). The structure, as excavated, had been partially robbed out on the S (river) side. The stepped wall (Wth 1m x H 1 m) of the masonry tower at foundation level was built on a raft of oak piles, driven into the underlying river silts to stabilise the structure. A single fragment of 13th/14th-century pottery was recovered from the underlying river silt, and radiocarbon dating of a sample of an oak pile returned a determination of AD 1163-1278. A possible trampled mortar floor surface identified within the structure was dated to the 15th/16th century by a fragment of early German stoneware. The remains were sealed with a layer of mixed mortar, rubble and alluvium. It appeared likely that the structure was destroyed by the 17th century. This would explain its absence from the documentary record, and later its absence from Rocque’s 1758 map of Kilkenny. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 11 November 2020