County: Limerick Site name: LIMERICK: Little Creagh Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 5:17 Licence number: 97E0453
Author: Celie O Rahilly, Planning Dept, Limerick Corporation
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 557859m, N 657443m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.666529, -8.623003
This site is located within the walled medieval Englishtown, behind (to the north-east of) Nos 4–9 George’s Quay but separated from it by an alley (now defunct). The site is defined by Creagh Lane to the south-east, Court House Lane to the north-east and Little Creagh Lane to the north-west.
Previous testing was carried out for the development of Nos 4–5 George’s Quay—between the site and the Abbey River—in September 1991. The town wall was not identified. It was concluded that it was located either further south, under the path/road on George’s Quay, or within the bounds of the present site. According to the plot layout described in the Civil Survey, the town wall would appear to be located in the former position, i.e. under George’s Quay.
The south-western half of this site (immediately behind the alley) was occupied by the chapel, with structures to the north-west. The north-eastern half of the site has been vacant since as least the early 1800s. None of the pre-1827 maps show specific buildings on this portion of the site, but the Civil Survey describes a series of houses, both stone and cadgework, within the block defined by the town wall, Creagh Lane, Little Creagh Lane (marked Court House Lane on 1840s plan), and Halls Yard Lane (marked Little Creagh Lane on same). The Civil Survey plots were overlaid on the 1840s plan to give an idea of the layout in 1654.
The OS map, 1840 edition, shows an ‘Old RC Chapel’ between the alley and Creagh Lane. This chapel, together with a chapel house, was erected, according to Lenihan (1866, 644), in 1778 by the Hermits of St Augustine, and occupied until 1823. Parts of the south-west and north-west walls of this structure survive.
Three cuttings were made: 1, the south-east parallel to Creagh Lane, 2, the north-west parallel to Little Creagh Lane, and 3, the cross-cutting parallel to Court House Lane.
In Cutting 1 a wall supporting brick arches was identified; it corresponded with both the north-eastern end of the extant wall and a building line on the 1840s plan. The brick vaulting it supported to the south-east was possibly related to the construction of the chapel. Similar vaulting was recorded during the excavation of Charlotte’s Quay; these were built, not as cellars, but to raise the overhead buildings above the tide level. At a depth of 2–2.2m was a black organic layer with a high twig content, animal bone, oyster shell, leather offcuts and waste. Three sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from it. On the south-western side of the wall this deposit was removed to a depth of 3.4m. The base was located at 3m below the surface, cutting the organic deposit. The wall face was vertical, i.e. no batter. On the other side of the wall a similar material was identified at a depth of 1.7m.
Given the depth of the base, the underlying organic deposits and the lack of batter, this wall can reasonably be concluded not to be the town wall.
In Cutting 2 the continuation of this wall was identified; this probably represents the property boundary as shown on the 1840s plan. At a depth of 1.8–3.7m a compacted brown soil occurred. There was no organic material.
At the north-western end of Cutting 3, the fill was building debris which may relate to the stone house mentioned in the Civil Survey. At the opposite end, the dark fill, overlying natural, contained 17th-century potsherds.
The natural would appear to slope down from the north-eastern side (at 1.8m in Cutting 3), increasing towards the river (3.7m in Cutting 2), with medieval deposits surviving on this slope at least on the south-eastern side of the site.
Reference
Lenihan, M. 1866 Limerick, its history and antiquities. Cork.
City Hall, Limerick
