2022:488 - ASKEATON: Askeaton Castle, Limerick

Investigations in December 2021 and January 2022, in advance of service trenching outside the house at the gate, Askeaton Castle, located the disturbed remains of the outer ward curtain wall and the rubble infill behind. A trench cut through the present castle gate found the early curtain wall line set back from, and running obliquely to, the gate. A trench cut in the footprint of the proposed pump and chamber for the foul drainage removed the rubble fill behind the curtain wall, onto a slope of weathered bedrock and boulder clay. The rubble and curtain wall are undated, but the absence of pottery in midden material among the rubble suggests construction in the late medieval period.