New tech lets researchers retrace lost Kilkenny town

There is little trace of the medieval market town of Newtown left visible to the eye. Only some scattered ruins within the green fields beside Jerpoint Abbey give a hint of what was once a busy town.

The Lost Town of Newtown Jerpoint was founded by either Earl Marshal or Griffin Fitzwilliam in the 12th Century, west of the Cistercian Abbey, where the main crossing of the River Nore was formed by a toll-paying bridge. The town was abandoned early in the 18th Century.

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It is a unique, historical place and stories about it holding the remains of St Nicholas, the patron saint of generosity and philanthropy adds to its reputation.

Now research by Daniel O’Mahony, a Teagasc Walsh Scholar at the UCD School of Archaeology and Dr Jesko Zimmermann, a Data Technologist in the Agrifood Business and Spatial Analysis Department at Teagasc has revealed what the historic town may have looked like when it was occupied.

Although the former town is noted in the historic Ordnance Survey Ireland maps of the country published in 1842, the site is now agricultural land.

According to local legend, and an entry on that OSI map, the local church is also the resting place of St Nicholas, whose remains were allegedly brought there by the monks. Such saintly relics and remains were believed to confer immense status on monasteries.

Jerpoint Park also contains the tomb of a local parish priest from the 14th Century, the ruins of a church and evidence of an ancient bridge.

As part of his Teagasc Walsh Scholarship, Daniel O’Mahony has been exploring historical monuments on the land using advanced new technologies.

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Using LIDAR and magnetic gradiometry, Daniel has retraced the old buildings of Newtown without having to excavate.

His research has unearthed long lost features such as ridge and furrow, two large mill complexes, possible land drainage, domestic homes and animal enclosures in Newtown.

Known as Laser Scanning or 3D scanning, LIDAR is a remote sensing technology which uses laser beams to explore faraway objects. One of the most common uses is to make high resolution terrain models.

Due to its high precision nature, LIDAR can be used to map and penetrate vegetation, providing amazing insight into features otherwise usually hidden.

In archaeology, this allows researchers to pick up the traces left by humans on the landscape without the need for excavation.

LIDAR provides a vivid image of how the village of Newtown may have actually looked.

The main road of Newtown, known as the Long Street, appears with the remnants of dwellings on either side. These houses facing the road, had long gardens stretching towards the river in the east, and into the fields in the west.

Another technology used in the research was a magnetometer survey, a non-invasive scanning method which can detect magnetic irregularities below ground which suggests buried buildings, and remnants of human settlement.

The UCD School of Archaeology carried out magnetic gradiometry of the area in 2021. These reveal what may have been a larger mill complex in the south east of the village, on the banks of the river.

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The main building is still visible in the LIDAR imagery as a square feature, as are other traces of a wider milling area.

To the west of the town lie the ruins of the parish church.

Already in ruins when the area was first mapped by the OSI, the old church ground is the site of a decorative tomb in the graveyard: reportedly the final resting place of St Nicholas.

The mapping of Newtown is now the subject of a Brainstorm podcast on RTE - for more visit www.rte.ie/brainstorm