2000:0589 - LIMERICK: Abbey River/George's Quay, Limerick

Excavations in the Abbey River
Over the past year and a half, excavations in advance of construction work associated with the Limerick Main Drainage Scheme have been carried out. The report on the first phase of these excavations (Excavations 1999, 169–71) included brief reports on excavations along George’s Quay and at Broad Street. The Phase I excavations also included an account of the various artefacts recovered from the bed of the Abbey River between Matthew Bridge and Baal’s Bridge. This year the excavations in the riverbed extended from Matthew Bridge to the mouth of the Abbey River, with its junction with the Shannon at Curragour Point, and from Curragour Point in the Shannon to Sarsfield Lock, and also included a short programme of excavation on George’s Quay.

Artefacts from the Abbey River
The excavation phase of the project is now complete, and the post-excavation work is beginning in earnest. To date, 10,000 finds have been retrieved from the Abbey and Shannon rivers. These range from a small number of finds dating to before the foundation of Limerick by the Vikings to finds from the present day. The finds reflect the civic history of the city, in terms of trade, commerce, wars and everyday life. The extensive number and variety in the collection are a unique reflection of the city’s wide and varied history. Some of the special finds are a Viking Age zoomorphic mount and coin minted for King Cnut (1035); a 15th-century spur and silver groat minted in Calais in France, Henry VI, Annulet Issue, 1422–7; a previously unrecorded port seal dating from 1500–1600; Williamite mortar bombs and cannonballs and an officer’s sword hilt; anti-Treaty Civil War arms (c. 1922), revolvers and hand grenades.

Town wall along George’s Quay
Two further sections of the medieval town wall were uncovered along George’s Quay (at Manholes E and F). Deep excavation was not required as the construction work was relatively shallow; however, the laying of new pipes along the quay at the junction of Creagh Lane and George’s Quay did reveal a substantial wall running parallel to the quay. The preliminary interpretation of the structure suggested that it formed part of a bastion or building standing proud of the line of the town wall. Structures standing proud of the town wall along the Abbey River are illustrated on the early historic maps of the city (Pacata Hibernia map, Hardiman’s map and Speed’s map). Organic deposits of 16th-century date abutting the structure contained the grain weevil Sitophilus granarius. This insect is a pest of stored grain in particular and is entirely dependent on humans for its dispersal (Eileen Reilly, pers. comm.). These deposits are possibly related to grain stored around Nicholas Arthur’s Mill, depicted on Hardiman’s map (c. 1590).

Riverbed at Matthew Bridge
The archaeological excavations at Matthew Bridge uncovered the remains of the 18th-century bridge piers that pre-dated the present 19th-century bridge. A number of important Civil War artefacts such as revolvers, hand grenades, an unexploded Civil War shell and bullet rounds were found around the base of the bridge piers during the excavation.

Hellsgate Island at Curragour Point
In the 18th century, a phase of canalisation of the Abbey River included the attempted construction of a lock gate at the mouth of the river at its junction with the Shannon. The foundations of the structure were constructed but never finished and were rediscovered with the de-watering in this location.

16th/17th-century weir in the Abbey River
The foundations of an early weir were identified in the Abbey River. The structure pre-dates Charlotte’s Quay and Bank Place and is thought to form a head-race for two mills on either side of the river, one under Bank Place and the other at the junction of Creagh Lane and George’s Quay. This again may relate to Nicholas Arthur’s Mill depicted on Hardiman’s map, c. 1590.

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