2008:074 - The Garrison, Leighlinbridge, Carlow

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Carlow Site name: The Garrison, Leighlinbridge

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E003592

Author: John Kavanagh, Icon Archaeology Ltd, 12 Cherrymount Drive, Carlow.

Site type: Bawn

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 669066m, N 665465m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.735859, -6.977290

Ministerial consent was granted to carry out a test excavation along the line of a recently demolished bawn wall associated with the town’s medieval defences (CW012–070–001). The purpose of the excavation was to identify and locate the foundations of the wall and to submit a proposal to the DOEHLG for its reinstatement. The remains of a substantial stone wall (width 0.78m, height 0.85m) aligned north–south were found in the three trenches excavated. The wall was built from roughly hewn limestone blocks and bonded with a lime-based mortar. The lower half of the wall was submerged beneath the water table and as a result much of the mortar had dissolved. A portion of an iron cooking pot was found at the base of the wall in Trench 1. Further investigative work will be carried out at the site in 2009.