2001:777 - LIMERICK: High Road/Old Thomond Gate, Limerick

The site is located on the west side of the Shannon River. It consists of a triangular area, bounded on the southern side by High Road and on the north-eastern side by Old Thomond Gate, with Halloran’s Lane on the western side. There is a roughly rectangular area on the far, west, side of the lane which is included but only part of which could accessed. The eastern end of the site is within 25m of Thomond Bridge. Originally the road to Ennis would have been along Old Thomond Gate, as William Eyre’s plan of 1752 shows. The formation of High Road took place sometime between 1833 and 1840 and is presumably associated with the rebuilding of Thomond Bridge, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1836; the bridge was opened by 1840. There would not seem to have been any need for O’Halloran’s Lane until the land in the vicinity was occupied by houses. It may be contemporary with the rebuilding of St Munchin’s R.C. Chapel in 1799 since nothing is shown on the 1752 plan, although the first chapel was built in 1744. Black’s map, 1824, shows a single lane extending south from Old Thomond Gate to the west of the chapel.

Given the suburban location of this area, the site was never densely occupied even after the formation of High Road. The OS plans of 1840, 1872 and 1905 all show buildings along the frontage onto Thomond Gate (north-eastern and northern side), and along the northern half of both sides of O’Halloran’s Lane. The southern half of this lane and the western end of the site on High Road were only built on by 1870, with two buildings (not included in the present site) fronting High Road whose shape has not changed since. It is also interesting to note that, apart from the eastern end of the High Road frontage, there were never any other structures along here. A possible explanation for this may lie in an entry in the Civil Survey (1654), which describes ‘some tenements’ which are ‘mearing with the Vicars land on the south, the heigh way leadinge to Thomond on the north the heigh way leading from Thomond-Gate on the East and the Comon quarie leadinge to Thomond on the west’. ‘Vicars land’ is possibly that area which is marked ‘Church Land’ on the OS plan of 1840, 1:1056 scale, and ‘Deanery-land’ on the 1840 plan, 1:10560 scale. If this was the site of a quarry, it might explain the low level, the lack of houses, and the nature and depth of the fill in Cutting 3.

Ten cuttings were opened by machine. Cuttings 1 and 2 were located along the west side of O’Halloran’s Lane, 3 and 4 were close to the High Road frontage, and 5, 6 and 7 were facing Old Thomond Gate, on the site of the now-demolished houses. The last three were opened to the north of garden walls of the only houses on High Road. Cutting 3 was the only location in which any material of archaeological potential was found, at a depth of 2.4m below the present ground level (c. 6.95m OD). This was in the area on which there had never been any buildings and which may have been the site of the quarry. With the recovery of a fragment of worked leather, possibly from a medieval shoe, work stopped, so the full depth of the material is not recorded. In the remainder of the cuttings, natural clay and large boulders occurred immediately below the semi-modern activity.

A test excavation was carried out by Edmond O’Dovovan in advance of the tunnel for the Limerick Main Drainage (Excavations 1999, No. 523, 99E407). His Trench 3 is located at the eastern edge of the site. Two ‘late post-medieval features’ were noted.

Limerick Corporation, City Hall, Limerick