2012:375 - CARRICK-ON-SHANNON: Townparks, Leitrim

Major pipe laying for Leitrim County Council (Carrick-on-Shannon N4 Bypass Sewage Connection Pipe) was monitored in several townlands in or near Carrick-on-Shannon over a few years under Licence 07E0747. The final section linking two locations by a 90m-long connection pipe laid at a depth of about 2m was monitored under the current licence in what is now a car park between the N4, built in 1983, and the River Shannon. Works had been repeatedly postponed due to the high level of the immediately adjacent river. When conditions were at optimum the 90m-long trench, 1m wide and 2m deep, was cut through the modern road fill; at the very bottom river edge muds were reached.

A substantial wall, apparently almost 1m in width at a depth of 1.1m, was encountered. Interpretations of this being the bawn wall of the 17th-century castle (Moore 2003, 205, 210), located no more than 40m away to the west, or of a quay of that castle, were considered. The substantial nature of the blocks and the slight batter on the east side gave credence to it being not of recent vintage. As the pipe being laid was for sewage there was no possibility of going under the wall and the likelihood was that we would again encounter the wall if we took a different route.
National Monuments Service was consulted and permission to break through was given. In examining the area and some maps it was realised that the line of the wall matched a 90o return of the river-edge wall and that the blocks of stone were of similar nature and dimensions. Clearly then the wall relates to the 19th-century quayside wall and not the 17th-century castle. Local knowledge gives a date of 1846 for the quay wall. The mateial behind the quay wall was 19th-century fill.

Both faces of the wall were recorded and only sufficient of the huge stone blocks to allow the pipe through were taken out; the pipe was laid and some of the blocks were replaced. The west side of the wall was of large random rubble while the east side, the main- or outside of the wall, only 0.7m wide, was of considerable blocks, 0.36m high, at least 0.7m wide.

Reference:
Moore, Michael, 2003: Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim. Dublin, Stationery Office.