2003:2097 - NEWCASTLE WEST: Desmond Castle, Limerick

A previously unknown portion of a substantial medieval curtain wall was identified in two test-trenches excavated by Laurence Dunne within the Coach House building located in the southern end of this medieval castle complex (Excavations 2001, No. 784, 01E0079). This south-west/north-east–orientated wall survived to a height of 1m and a 14th-century coin was found in association with it. In 2003 a test-trench measuring 4m by 4m was opened in the area outside the north-east corner of the Coach House to ascertain if the wall identified within the interior extended into the area to the north-east. The trench was also positioned to examine the area where this wall intersected with an east-west–orientated boundary wall which is visible above the present ground level in the area to the east of the Coach House.

The overburden material, a firm, grey-brown silty clay with many angular cobbles and modern rubbish material, was 0.3m deep. There were three evenly spaced concrete pads uncovered in the overburden, orientated along a north-south line. They each measured 1m east-west by 0.5m and were up to 0.3m in thickness. The central pad was found to have disturbed the surviving upper course of the east-west boundary wall and was bonded onto the stoned at the top of this wall. The northern concrete pad had caused disturbance to the eastern side of the medieval curtain wall in the area where is emerged from under the north-east corner of the Coach House. These concrete features may have functioned as foundation pads for an oil tank structure located to the east of the Coach House.

The modern overburden overlay a 0.4m-deep layer of firm, dark-grey silty clay containing frequent inclusions of rubble consisting of angular cobble-sized stones and small fragments of brick and lime mortar. It also contained occasional inclusions of animal bone fragments and two small sherds of post-medieval pottery. This layer appeared to have been deliberately deposited to form make-up material for the cobbled yard. It overlay a redeposited layer of compact, brown, sterile clay on the south side of the curtain wall. This extended for 0.3m from the south baulk and measured 0.5m east-west and 0.13m deep. This rammed earth deposit appeared to be similar to the floor surface previously uncovered in the Coach House. This overlay a small deposit of of loose mortar-rich soil, which extended for 0.7m from the south baulk and measured 0.05m in depth. This in turn overlay a thin charcoal-rich deposit, which contained occasional small fragments of brick, and this overlay the foundation fill of the east-west–orientated boundary wall.

This wall extended into the test-trench from the eastern baulk and continued until it abutted the medieval curtain wall in the west end of the trench. It was located at a depth of 0.45m below modern ground level and measured 0.9m in width. The wall survived to a height of 0.3m but the central concrete foundation pad had caused disturbance to most of the portion of this wall exposed within the trench. The wall was composed if mortar-bonded, angular limestone fragments, which averaged 0.2m in length, 0.15m in width and up to 0.3m in thickness. These stones were poorly bonded with a dark-yellow lime mortar. The wall survived to a height of a single course in the excavation trench and it rested on a foundation trench that extended for 0.4m from the south side of the base of the wall. A section excavated through the foundation fill was found to contain occasional brick fragments. The west end of the the east-west–orientated boundary wall overlay the curtain wall and was interpreted as post-dating the medieval wall.

The medieval curtain wall extended into the trench from the north-east corner of the Coach House; it measured 1.96m in width and survived to a height of 0.5m on the west side and 0.8m on the east side. The exposed portion of the wall was disturbed by the cut for a modern pipe and also by two of the concrete foundation pads. A 1.4m-long stretch of the wall was almost completely removed near the centre of the trench and all that remained was the basal course. This absent portion of wall is accounted for by a small robber trench containing post-medieval pottery. This curtain wall was well-constructed with mortar-bonded, randomly coursed, limestone fragments and had a pronounced batter on the exposed eastern facade. The voiding noted in the portion of this wall exposed in the Coach House was not evident in this area. The wall rested on the natural subsoil and there was no trace of a foundation cut on the western side. There was a 0.2m-deep stony deposit abutting the basal portion of the batter on the eastern side of the wall. This did not appear to have been the fill of a distinct foundation trench but rather the fill of a shallow cut dug to accommodate the basal course of the wall batter. There were no artefacts recovered in association with the curtain wall in this trench and the 14th-century coin uncovered in the Coach House remains the only dating evidence for this construct. The wall continued under the north baulk of the trench and a geophysical survey will be carried out in order to map the full extent of this feature.

3 Canal Place, Tralee