1996:390 - WATERFORD: Beach Tower, Jenkins Lane, Waterford

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Waterford Site name: WATERFORD: Beach Tower, Jenkins Lane

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0376

Author: Orla M.B. Scully

Site type: Town defences

Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)

ITM: E 660237m, N 611852m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.255088, -7.117713

This excavation was undertaken to facilitate the conservation of the portion of the city wall adjoining the mural tower of the Anglo-Norman part of the walled city.

An eighteenth- or nineteenth-century dwelling had once existed on the south-eastern (inner) face of the wall, and the builders had scarped the original wall face, inserting a chimney flue and wall of brick. This had subsequently collapsed, leaving the wall in a precarious stare. Waterford Civic Trust, under the supervision of Ben Murragh and the NMHD, intend to reconstruct the inner face of the wall.

The excavation involved removing the surface of the adjoining carpark and the underlying layers which abutted the wall. These layers were disturbed, and the earliest pottery was seventeenth-century.

The width of the original wall was established and the location of the arcading of a supporting arch was confirmed. Details of the inside of an embrasure with an arrow-loop (still in perfect condition on the outer face of the wall) were revealed. The area is cordoned off from public use and reconstruction is planned in the near future.

16 Riverstown, Tramore, Co. Waterford