2003:1711 - Castle Park, Carrick-On-Suir, Tipperary

Monitoring was carried out for the final phase of the demolition of part of a 19th-century wall and the excavation of foundations for its replacement on the site of the Castleview Lawn Tennis Club, Castle Park, Carrick-on-Suir, between 7 and 11 August 2003. The wall runs perpendicular to the town wall of Carrick-on-Suir and forms the western boundary of the tennis club. The site has been a tennis club since the 19th century, when it was established for the British Army Barracks on New Street; it currently consists of four tarmac tennis courts with a single-storey clubhouse at the eastern side. A total of 42.2m of wall was demolished; 11.3m survive between the demolished section and the medieval town wall. The demolished wall was 2.7m high and 0.55-0.7m wide; three stone buttresses were built some time in the 19th or 20th century to prop it up. The fabric of the wall consisted of a mixture of limestone and old red sandstone, in the form of both fieldstone and roughly squared and dressed quarry stone; the foundations were extremely shallow. The bonding material was a sand-rich mortar. Nothing of significance was encountered during the demolition of the wall, during the excavation of the foundation trench, or during an inspection of the demolition rubble.