County: Limerick Site name: LIMERICK: Milk Market
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0088
Author: Celie O Rahilly, c/o Planning Dept., Limerick Corporation
Site type: Town defences
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 557859m, N 657043m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.662935, -8.622952
Several foundation- and pipe-trenches were monitored during the course of the development. These were located within the Milk Market and produced nothing of archaeological interest. For the most part there seems to have been substantial amounts of fill put in place in the 17th and 18th centuries.
However, in Cutting 5, to the west of the market, the angled base of a tower was located. This consisted of the external face of the inside edge of what was presumably a corner D-shaped tower which marked the change in direction of the city wall. The wall itself was defined cutting through the west side of the Milk Market and not along its external perimeter as was previously supposed. It ran north-north-eastwards for approximately 35m and then angled northwards to line up with the stretch of wall along Carr St. It measured c. 1.7m wide and was 0.3m below the cobbled surface of the Milk Market. While the inside face was almost entirely exposed, the external face was only defined in places.
Further cuttings along Corn Market Row were opened in January 1994 in advance of paving a new footpath. For the most of its length, the core of the wall was defined: the inner face seems to have been removed by later intrusions, (cables, culverts and the base of the present Milk Market wall), while the external face lay beyond the line of the proposed path. However, the external face was defined at two points. One at the west end, close to where it would have joined the corner tower, and one at the east end where it would have met the gate on Mungret St. This stretch does not align with the extant wall on the east side of Mungret St.
