County: Limerick Site name: KILMALLOCK: Sheares Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 47:22 Licence number: 97E0002
Author: Celie O Rahilly, Planning Dept, Limerick Corporation
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 560808m, N 627887m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.401103, -8.575930
This work was carried out in order to assess whether there were any archaeological remains at the front of the site below the recently demolished buildings. The site is located on the northern side of Sheares Street, to the north-west of ‘King’s Castle’, which, according to the Urban Survey, ‘originally functioned as the entrance to the town on the north-west and that Sheares Street represents an extension of the medieval town, probably in the 16th century’ (p. 156). There are three plots, 7–9m wide by 60–55m long, with the houses on the front and long gardens extending to the town wall to the north-east. The layout of the plots along this section of Sheares Street reflects the medieval pattern and it was expected that evidence of occupation would survive on the frontage.
Five trenches were initially opened by B.J. Hodkinson in January 1996.
In this assessment four cuttings were opened by mechanical excavator and depths were measured from the level of the footpath, which varied from 88.13m to 88.23m OD. The rear wall of two of the former houses was located 7m from the footpath. The central property was originally identical but was added to at a later stage. Ground level behind the rear wall was at a lower level by approximately 0.7m at 87.39m OD.
In Cuttings 1, 3 and 4 natural clay occurred at c. 0.9m at the front of the site and in Cutting 2 the natural shale at 1.1m. To the rear of the back wall of the original houses the level of the natural clay was similar in Cutting 1 only, with a drop in all the others, varying between 1.35m and 1.5m. In Cuttings 1 and 3 there was evidence for activity at the level of the natural clay. This was also identified by B.J. Hodkinson in his Cutting 3 (‘two features of indeterminate shape and date cut into subsoil’) and Cutting 4 (‘Several amorphous features were cut into the subsoil’). The complete absence of any finds from these lower deposits means that it is not possible to put a date on this activity, nor was there any evidence of structural remains such as one might expect to find on the frontage.
Monitoring of the proposed foundations along the frontage and to the rear of the site was also carried out. These latter were cut through the dark soil. On the north side boulder clay was reached, but on the south side the depth of soil was deeper. No archaeological features, deposits or finds were noted, and the only find was a piece of cut stone from the rubble.
City Hall, Limerick
