County: Limerick Site name: LIMERICK: King's Island, John's Ward B
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Brian Hodkinson, Limerick Corporation
Site type: Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 558259m, N 657743m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.669255, -8.617129
Site 3
To the south of King John's Castle. Several trenches were excavated in the area between the castle and the new Civic Office Complex to help establish the levels to which the area could be landscaped. The full line of the medieval city wall extending south from the south-west tower of the castle was established along the riverside.
In the same area, the undercroft, (see Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 2. no. 4, Winter 1988) was investigated. There are two main phases to this building. The earliest of these was the outer shell of the building, measuring 22m long east-west x 7m wide. It was set into the slope to the east and was entered through a doorway in the middle of the north wall with a possible second door through the west wall leading to the river. There was evidence for windows in all but the west wall. The second phase saw the insertion of the impressive arches and wicker-centred barrel vaults. These are carried on the walls built up against the earlier north and south walls and the area was bisected by a 5-arched central wall, forming two long bays. There were similar arches in the side walls which were centred on the openings in the Phase 1 walls.
The southern bay has a continuous east-west vault, but that in the northern bay is interrupted in the central portion around the doorway by a vault on the opposite axis, carried on arches which spring from the piers of the central arch of the spine wall. It is assumed that this change in direction is to allow for headroom at the entrance. All the vaults bear traces of wicker centring and, on this basis, the second phase is believed to be of a late medieval date. Limited trial trenching in the northern bay failed to refine this Phase 2 date, but two trenches against the outer wall produced sherds suggesting a 13th- 14th-century date for the earlier phase.
The whole of the undercroft was cleared of an accumulation of modern debris and is now to be displayed as part of the amenity area of the adjacent Civic Offices.
Site 6
In connection with the redevelopment of King John's Castle, two trenches were excavated by machine to establish the line of the demolished east curtain wall. The base of the wall was uncovered in both trenches and found to be wider in the northern one. Further work scheduled for 1990 should help to explain the narrowing of the southern part of the wall. A third trench was excavated outside the north-east tower of the castle and revealed what appears to be a moat, c. 7m wide with scarped outer face.
Planning Dept., Limerick Corporation, Limerick
