County: Limerick Site name: LIMERICK MUNICIPAL BOROUGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LI005–017 Licence number: C300; E3954; R130
Author: Tracy Collins, ÆGIS Archaeology Ltd, 32 Nicholas Street, King’s Island, Limerick.
Site type: City walls
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715607m, N 732897m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.333681, -6.264245
On foot of the Limerick City Walls Conservation and Management Plan (Collins et al. 2008), a report prepared for Limerick City Council and the Heritage Council, two stretches of city wall were proposed for conservation works in 2009, at Exchange Lane, Englishtown and Charlotte’s Quay carpark in Irishtown. Test-trenching was undertaken at both wall stretches to locate wall footings and to ascertain if any archaeological deposits remained subsurface.
At Exchange Lane, two small trenches were opened by hand on the north side of the wall. This revealed that the facing and core of the wall was immediately below the surface. This core was used as the footings for the new facing of the wall. The pattern for the newly added facing was based on an extant portion of the medieval city wall, located at St Saviour’s Dominican priory, Island Road, also in Englishtown. The top of the wall was also capped with a lime mortar to prevent water penetration.
Four small test-trenches were dug by hand at the base of both faces of the stretch of the city wall at Charlotte’s Quay carpark in Irishtown. Nothing of an archaeological nature was discovered and conservation works progressed, which replaced missing foundations and facing and capped the wall to prevent water penetration. As part of this phase of works, the eastern side of the Linear Park section of the city wall, which is a right-of-way owned by Limerick City Council, was cleared of rubbish and debris to reveal the eastern face of the city wall at this location.
This conservation project was funded by the Heritage Council and Limerick City Council. It is hoped that further stretches of the city wall will be conserved in 2010.
Reference
Collins, T., N. Darmody, B. O’Mahony, L.G. Lynch, F. Coyne and D. Humphreys, with R. Minogue 2008 Limerick city walls conservation and management plan. Unpublished report for Limerick City Council and the Heritage Council.
