The wells, each exceeding eight metres in diameter and built using drystone construction, a technique in which stones are stacked without mortar to form a stable structure, were uncovered during archaeological excavations in 1992 before the Market Cross Shopping Centre was built on the site. Both had been backfilled at some point in the twentieth century, sealing whatever they contained, and portions of both were left in place beneath the new development rather than removed.

The excavation, carried out by archaeologist John Channing, examined a plot running between High Street and the western stretch of the old town wall of the Hightown of Kilkenny, roughly from Red Lane to James's Street. John Rocque's 1758 map of Kilkenny shows the area fully built over at that time, and from 1800 until its demolition in 1992 the site was occupied by the Presentation convent school and chapel on James's Street. The wells predate this institutional use of the land, and their scale suggests they served a significant function within the medieval town. Alongside the wells, stone-lined and unlined pits containing medieval pottery were recorded close to James's Street, adding further texture to what was evidently a well-used and long-occupied urban plot. The combination of large water infrastructure and refuse or storage pits points to sustained domestic or commercial activity reaching back several centuries before Rocque ever put pen to paper.