Foundations of a medieval house dating back to the 13th or 14th century have been uncovered in the town centre of Kilmallock, Co Limerick.
Tobar Archaeological Services uncovered the foundations of the house after the developers of a retail and residential site at the junction of Sarsfield Street and Emmet Street were required to employ archaeologists before any building could commence. An early cobbled laneway has also been uncovered and there is evidence of a timber fence predating the laneway.
Ms Annette Quinn, head archaeologist for Tobar Archaeological Services, said: "Kilmallock is probably one of the best medieval towns in the country. A lot of the medieval town walls are still upstanding. The walled town was constructed in the 13th century."
The team dug two metres deep and at the back of the site there is a ditch predating the houses where the residents discarded their domestic refuse. Shoes with well-preserved soles and pottery were found as well as other artefacts including leather, thousands of pieces of animal bones, a decorated stick pin of copper alloy, cess pit, wooden awl, stone mortar, sharpening stones and metal cauldron leg.
Kilmallock was inhabited by Anglo-Normans who would have lived on the excavation site.