2000:0590 - LIMERICK: Cathedral Place/New Road/Lelia Street, Limerick

This work, carried out between 26 October and 8 December 2000, entailed total refurbishment and street improvements, in addition to the laying of a new water main and ducting. The ducting ran east–west along the southern side of Cathedral Place, across Garryowen Road, northwards along the unnamed road between Cathedral Place to the south and John Street to the north, and then eastward along the southern side of New Road. The water main extended from Cathedral Place, near Smith’s Lane, northwards centrally on the unnamed road, across the top of John Street (and north on this as far as Church Street), eastward on the north side of New Road and northwards along the western side of Lelia Street to the junction with Old Clare Street. Once all the services were in place, new kerb lines were installed, and the footpaths and the road were resurfaced. As was the case with the work on the King’s Island (Englishtown), there had been considerable disturbance caused by earlier work, e.g. water mains, sewers (culvert type), old and new gas mains, Eircom ducts etc.

The majority of the work was located within the medieval walled town at the southern end of the Irishtown, although the two extremities, on Cathedral Place to the south-west and on Lelia Street to the north-east, were beyond or outside the limits of the town wall.

At the eastern end of the works, on New Road, the trench on the southern side of the road crossed where the town wall had been removed to accommodate New Road, near the south-eastern corner of the Irishtown. The only visible remains of the wall in the 0.75m-wide trench was a ledge of bedrock, 3.15m east–west, which appeared to have chiselled ledges to accommodate the base stones of the wall, only two of which remained in situ, associated with a spread of mortar. The central part was at a higher level (0.3m below the level of the old footpath), with the sides c. 0.2m lower. East of the rock, there was a 3m-wide band of orange clay, which may be redeposited natural clay upcast from either the 19th-century pipe-trenches or the external ditch that ran parallel to the base of the wall, although when this ditch was previously located by Brian Hodkinson (Excavations 1988, 23–4) it was at the base of the wall. Beyond or east of this clay were black, organic-type deposits, which are either ditch fills or the continuation of the boggy ground identified along Lelia Street: ‘The Greene commonly called Cluone, and the Bogg on ye north...’ (Simington 1938, 489).

As the trench progressed westward, where the internal rampart wall (still extant inside the wall to the north, between New Road and Old Clare Street) would have been, the level of the natural clay and bedrock remained high. The only possible evidence of the rampart wall was a few loose stones, visible in the southern section (nothing in the northern section), together with a faint spread of mortar at the base of the trench. Beyond the line of the rampart wall was another, parallel rock shelf, 3m wide and only 0.25m below the footpath.

On the other side of New Road (in the water-main trench), the shelf of chiselled bedrock was identified 0.85m below the road surface, at the base of where the town wall would have been located. This was 2m wide, with a similar central rise, 0.6m wide. The eastern side of the rock shelf was vertically cut, suggesting that the external ditch was closer to the wall. There was no trace of the rampart wall.

A small stretch of town wall was also identified to the south-west of the Citadel and extant stretch of wall, located in the grounds of the hospital. This consisted of a 5m-long continuation of the wall under the southern footpath of Garryowen Road. In neither of the trenches was there any trace of the John’s Gate structure. The town wall is presumed to extend along the northern side of Brennan’s Row, to link with the extant wall in the hospital grounds. This gate, therefore, would presumably have been situated at the southern end of Garryowen Road. The water-main trench must have crossed the line of the town wall as it headed northwards between the hospital and the graveyard, but there was evidence for considerable disturbance created by the subsequent insertion of services (including a stone-lined culvert), which has apparently removed all visible traces of any structural remains.

It has generally been assumed that there were two access points in the section of the town wall that defined the southern side of the Irishtown: the Citadel and John’s Gate. These have been described in various works (Leask 1941; Bradley et al. c. 1989–90) as two separate, but original, features. The former is located in the grounds of what is now St John’s Hospital, the latter at the southern end of Garryowen Road, just west of the extant wall connected to the Citadel. However, a study of the maps and representations shows that up to 1685 there was only one gate, situated in a direct alignment with the southern end of John Street, i.e. the Citadel. At some point, presumably during the unrest of the first half of the 17th century, this structure, consisting of an arched entrance with an associated gatehouse, had bastion-type supplementary defensive elements added both internally and externally. Phillips’s map of 1685 depicts a second access to the west of this, between the Citadel and a mural tower, presumably constructed to avoid the Citadel, in which a garrison was quartered. While none of the maps or representations dating to 1690–1 shows such a breach in the defence system (suggesting that it may have been blocked for the duration of the war), by 1752 this was re-established; on William Eyres’s map it is clearly defined and named John’s Gate. These comments are based on a very preliminary study.

At the south end of Lelia Street, on the west side of the street, an abrupt change of stratigraphy visible in the trench may be all that remains of the siege outwork, which is depicted on many of the maps encompassing the tower known as Cogan’s Tower (on the stretch of wall defining the eastern side of the Irishtown). This consisted of a vertical change from a mixed brown fill located to the south to a clean, bright (?redeposited natural) orange fill that occurred at right angles to the town wall.

Some structural remains consisting of the bases of walls, with red brick incorporated into them, occurred at the top of John Street, on both sides of New Road and in the area around the John’s Gate fountain. In both instances, these remains are those of the house and boundary walls, as depicted on the 1840 OS plan, that existed before the formation of New Road (sometime between 1856 and 1865) and the erection of the fountain (1865).

ReferencesBradley, J. et al. c. 1989–90 Urban Archaeology Survey. Part XVII (iii). Limerick City. Unpublished report, OPW.
Leask, H.G. 1941 The ancient walls of Limerick. NMAJ 2 (3).
Simington, R.C. 1938 Civil survey 1654–8, County of Limerick. Dublin.

City Hall, Limerick