House — medieval in Waterford City

Excavations from 1987-92 over an extensive area between High St., Peter St. and Olaf St. revealed a continuous sequence of houses dating from the mid-11th to the early 14th centuries (Hurley et al. 1997). The houses were in fourteen blocks or plots fronting on to Peter St. (L 90m; D of stratigraphy c. 2m) and were recorded at fourteen levels, although not all plots had structures relating to each level. The houses at the earliest levels, dating to the mid-/late 12th century, were mainly of Dublin Type 1 construction (Wallace 1992), fronting directly on to the street in most cases. They were of post-and-wattle construction with clay floors and had three aisles (average dims. c. 8m x 6m), usually with a hearth in the middle of the centre aisle. Thirty-three houses of this type were recorded and there were also fifteen Dublin Type 2 houses which are smaller, ancillary buildings, usually associated with Type 1 houses, within well-defined plots. One sunken building (dims. 5.3m x 4.5m) of a type peculiar to Waterford had been erected at Level 4 (late 11th/early 12th century). From Level 9 (mid/late 12th century) onwards timber buildings of sill-beam construction, roughly the same size as the Dublin Type 1 houses, became dominant until the mid-13th-century (Level 13). Houses with stone wall-footings also appear at Level 9 and continue to the uppermost levels which dated to the late 13th/early 14th-century (Level 14). (Scully and McCutcheon 1997). Hurley, M., Scully, O.M.B. and McCutcheon, S.J.W. (1997) Late Vikng age and medieval Waterford: excavations 1986-1992. Waterford Corporation. Scully, O. M. B. and McCutcheon, S. W. J. (1997) 'Section 6: (iv) Catalogue of houses (a) Peter Street', in M. Hurley et al., Late Viking age and medieval Waterford: excavations 1986-1992, 53-137. Waterford Corporation. Wallace, P. F. W. (1992) The Viking age buildings of Dublin. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 23 December 2008