1999:514 - LIMERICK: Athlunkard Street/Island Road (Site K.I.33), Limerick

The site was at the eastern end of the block defined by the Northern Relief Road/Island Road to the east, Athlunkard Street (formed in 1824) to the south, Athlunkard Villas (at the southern end of Bishop's Street) to the west and St Ann's Court to the north. Apart from three houses fronting west onto Athlunkard Villas, the properties faced south onto Athlunkard Street, with their backyards opening onto St Ann's Court.

The site was just outside the town wall to the east of the Englishtown. The wall extended south from the Island Gate, parallel to the Island Road. Thirty metres to the north of the site, two stretches of standing remains of the wall survive at St Peter's Cell, with another, defaced, 9m stretch extending east-west along the southern side of St Ann's Court. During pipe-trenching in 1996 the line of this wall was followed eastwards for 20m (Excavations 1996, 70, 96E0134). It then turned northwards on the alignment of the standing remains of the town wall at St Peter's Cell. There is cartographic evidence for a gate, Little Island Gate, at the eastern end of St Ann's Court. No trace of this was noted during the trenching, but this may have been due to the limited size of the cut. It is possible that the remains, which may consist of a simple arched ope, survive at a deeper level.

The site consisted of three properties, Nos 9B, 10 and 11 (now open space), on Athlunkard Street. The northern end of the westernmost of these, No. 9B, abutted the town wall, just south of where this gate was positioned. This property was 6m wide.

Extending eastwards on the same line as the town wall was a previously unknown wall, identified below the Island Road (Excavations 1996, 70). This was aligned exactly with the east-west portion of town wall on St Ann's Court. It was battered on its northern face, and there were medieval deposits associated with it.

With regard to the standing remains on the site itself, the cartographic evidence would suggest that the buildings fronting Athlunkard Street are 19th-century, while those to the rear are post-1760s.

Five cuts were opened across the site on 19 March 1999. Cut 1 was not fully excavated as its purpose was to find the wall. Once this was identified, no further digging occurred. No other structural remains were noted in any of the trenches. Cut 3 was the only one where a possible natural level was reached, at a depth of 2.7m. This consisted of a grey, silty clay, with decayed vegetation and loose gravel-all of which could constitute an old foreshore level. Common to Cuts 2–5 was a light brown, compacted, turfy, organic layer, which in Cut 5 had medieval pottery sherds. This occurred at a depth of 2m in Cut 3, 2.8m in Cut 2, and 3m in Cuts 4 and 5. Overlying this layer were silt in Cut 4 and sand in Cut 5. No finds were recovered from these, and they may represent a flood level. An ash deposit occurred in Cut 2 at a depth of 2.6m.

Post-medieval deposits occurred in Cuts 2–5. The material was very similar to that noted in the pipe-trenching during the pre-construction of the Northern Relief Road, both on the Island Road (Phase 1) and south of Athlunkard Street (Phase 2). Given the thickness of these deposits, they do not appear to have been formed by occupation but rather by the material being dumped, which would be in keeping with their location outside the town wall. Between 0.7m and 1.2m of early modern rubble/ debris was recorded.

City Hall, Limerick