When groundwork for the MacDonagh Junction development began in 2006, archaeologists uncovered a corn-drying kiln, the burnt base of an oven, and postholes from what was probably a small outbuilding or store. A corn-drying kiln, sometimes called a grain kiln, was a low stone or earthen structure used to dry harvested cereal crops before milling, removing moisture to prevent spoilage and make the grain easier to grind. The yard had been sealed beneath an agricultural soil layer dating to the sixteenth or seventeenth century, which is part of what preserved it so well.

Radiocarbon dating placed the kiln's use between approximately 1274 and 1389, firmly within the later medieval period. The site sits just 200 metres outside the town ditch of the ward of St. John's, Kilkenny, a boundary that would have defined the edge of the organised urban settlement at the time. Roughly 150 metres to the west, excavated simultaneously by Emma Devine and Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, was a medieval pottery production centre, and both sites would originally have fronted onto the same street or lane. That lane was effectively erased from the map when the Dublin Road was widened in 1818, absorbing what had been a distinct local thoroughfare. The higher ground to the east showed no signs of medieval occupation and appears to have been open farmland during the same period, suggesting the kiln and pottery works sat at the productive edge of the town, just beyond its formal boundary but clearly connected to its economy.

Much of what was uncovered was preserved in place after excavation, and the remains may extend further westward beyond the excavated area, underneath the development that prompted their discovery in the first place.