County: Limerick Site name: BALLYSIMON II
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 5:41 Licence number: 98E0607
Author: Tracy Collins, Aegis Archaeology
Site type: Water mill - vertical-wheeled
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 558926m, N 656320m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.656517, -8.607096
This site is in the path of the Limerick Southern Ring Road, and before its demolition it was proposed architecturally to survey the extant structure. Ballysimon Mill first appeared on the 17th-century Down Survey Map. From the survey it was found that no original 17th-century features remained. In fact the entire structure appeared to have been rebuilt over the years. A large farmhouse of Georgian style in the vicinity of the mill was also due for demolition. Aegis recommended that this too should be photographically surveyed, and this was subsequently carried out.
It was then agreed that the extant mill structure should be test-trenched to see whether it was built on the earlier foundations of the 17th-century mill. The only free space in which to trench by hand was in the interior of the extant mill, because of the surrounding concrete yard. The unstable nature of the building meant that only one test-trench could be dug.
The mill building was two-storeyed and rectangular, measuring 4m east-west by 5.5m. The trench measured 1.4m by 3.5m. The west end of the trench abutted a portion of ashlar masonry, which was interpreted as an early part of the building. Overburden in the form of modern debris and building rubble was encountered, beneath which was the original cobbled stone floor, containing one large limestone flag that appeared to have been a reused step. This overlay the red boulder clay, interpreted as the natural parent material of the site. No artefacts of archaeological significance were recovered. The test-trenching concluded that the extant structure did not stand on an earlier site.
16 Avondale Court, Corbally, Limerick
