2009:822 - THEATRE ROYAL/DEANERY GARDEN, THE MALL, WATERFORD, Waterford

Remedial work to the protected structure the Theatre Royal in City Hall, Waterford, required a fire escape at basement level at the rear of the theatre. The foundations of the rear wall of the city hall/theatre, built in 1783, are built on the city wall. The stone defences are generally attributed to the Anglo-Normans, who consolidated the earlier earth and bank defences of the Vikings. The wall was revetted into the earlier earthen bank. The excavation removed a small section through the bank, exposing a later stone-lined pit which had been inserted into the collapsed bank. The pit yielded several sherds of 13th–14th-century pottery. The bank overlay a distinct layer of burnt material with a high charcoal content. This was associated with a small furnace bowl with iron slag. The burnt layer overlay the sod of the old ground surface. The furnace bowl had two sherds of coarseware. The charcoal was dated in Queen’s University Belfast. The calibrated date (2 sigma) is AD 898–920; 945–1018. This is the earliest date yet obtained for the walled city of Waterford. It potentially links the city to the earlier Longphort site at Woodstown and to annalistic references to the arrival of a great Scandinavian fleet in 914.