1995:182 - KING JOHN'S CASTLE, Limerick, Limerick

Excavation sponsored by Shannon Heritage Ltd/FÁS at King John's Castle continued for the whole of 1995, with a break only for Christmas week. There was no further work undertaken in Cutting 1 at the rear of the gatehouse (Excavations 1993, 52; 1994, 56–8). The cutting was backfilled in April, with timber casing inserted to display the remains of the two walls flanking the entrance. In Cutting 2, sub-cuttings 2A-C along the western side of the great hall were backfilled in January up to the hall floor level. Some conservation work was carried out on the upper level of three of the walls, as well as on the western windows and the northern door.

Excavation continued in January-February and from September to December in sub-cuttings 2D and 2E. Excavation in 2D, to the east of the hall corridor, reached undisturbed boulder clay some 6m below the courtyard level of the castle. The lowest third of this sub-cutting contained much evidence relating to 11th–12th-century activity on the site. One of the most impressive features was an east-west alignment or revetment of limestone boulders located close to the subsoil floor. At a higher level, excavation revealed a well-preserved limestone road 2.2m in width, also aligned east-west. The road extended to the west below the 13th-century corridor, and continued under the foundation of the eastern wall of the hall.

This limestone surface is in fact the low-lying continuation of an east-west pathway excavated in 1990/1 at the eastern side of the courtyard, reflecting a pronounced slope in the 12th-century ground level towards the river. The eastern extent of the feature as excavated in 1990 underpinned the limestone face of the Anglo-Norman ringwork to the north, and it was bounded to the south by the ringwork ditch (Excavations 1990, cover photo). In Cutting 2D, the roadway was not associated with either the ringwork bank or ditch, establishing it as a pre-Norman feature.

Excavation in sub-cutting 2E, the corridor area along the eastern side of the hall, was largely confined to an extension at the northern end. The reason for extending the excavation here was to attempt to locate the northern terminal of the medieval corridor wall, and to discover how the corridor was accessed while it remained in use up to the 17th century. This turned out to be one of the most productive areas examined in the castle so far. More detail of 12th-century settlement activity was uncovered, and also some evidence for what appeared to be part of a substantial pre-Norman earthwork. A section of the southern line of the Anglo-Norman ringwork bank was excavated. A well-preserved limestone buttress of medieval date survived against the eastern face of the hall. The northern limit of the late 13th-century corridor wall was situated directly opposite the buttress, increasing the excavated length of the wall to 13.5m. Limited excavation was undertaken to find the northern limit of the eastern wall of the hall, but revealed instead the southern half of a window with a bevelled limestone jamb, belonging to the as yet unexcavated northern room. This work extended the excavated length of the eastern wall to 25m.

In January, a third cutting was opened as part of the overall archaeological work undertaken at the castle. Cutting 3 was located outside the southern curtain wall, adjacent to the western flank of the south-east corner bastion. This site, known as 'Castle Lane', was acquired for major redevelopment by SFADCO, and part of it was to be archaeologically excavated in line with planning requirements. The existing Shannon Heritage Ltd/FÁS Archaeological Project was the obvious vehicle for conducting the necessary excavation work on the site, and so a substantial area outside the castle was made available to the team.

The Castle Lane site was principally of interest as the ideal place to excavate for information regarding the castle ditch, first cut early in the 13th century. Part of the infill of this ditch had been sampled in Areas 2–4 of the 1990–1 excavation, but the new site offered the opportunity to learn much more about the feature.

The site was mechanically cleared of modern dumps and stripped of thick 19th–20th-century deposits during January–February. Hand excavation continued for six months between March and August in a main area measuring 16m north-south by 10m east-west. Excavation revealed considerable levelling and disturbance across the site in the 18th century, as well as extensive repair work to both the southern curtain and western bastion walls around the same period. Excavation along the exterior of the western bastion allowed completion of the investigation of a late 12th-century sunken-featured structure, the eastern half of which had been excavated five years earlier on the opposite side of the same wall. Substantial deposits of medieval date survived at the lower level of the ditch, the base level of which was found to be much lower than that revealed by excavation outside the eastern wall of the bastion in 1990/1. It is expected that the Cutting 3 excavation will be completed in 1996.

13 Aisling Heights, Raheen, Co. Limerick