2012:403 - Limerick Municipal Borough, Limerick

This project continued the works proposed in the Limerick City Walls Conservation and Management Plan (Collins et al. 2008), a report prepared for Limerick City Council and The Irish Town Wall Network (ITWN) of The Heritage Council and funded by The Heritage Council. Since then, each year, conservation works have taken place. This entry details the fourth phase of those conservation works: the monitoring and general archaeological supervision of the conservation of two stretches of the Medieval City Wall in Limerick, at St Saviour’s, Island Road Limerick (external face only) and emergency works at the Gables/St John’s Hospital stretch. Both stretches are within the zone of archaeological potential from LI005-017 (Historic Town).
In 2010 works concerned the removal of vegetation from the St Saviour’s Stretch in order to assess the condition of the wall and make plans for this conservation. Works were undertaken by a specialist building contractor, as the result of a competitive tendering process. The works were subsequently completed and signed off by Architectural Conservation Professionals (ACP) in late 2011.
The conservation works at St Saviour’s were monitored by the writer. No new archaeological features were noted during the conservation works which comprised repointing, capping and the underpinning of its northern end. The emergency works at the Gables stretch were undertaken as some of the facing stones of the City Wall at that location had fallen due to spalling that had occurred in the very cold weather. No new archaeological features were identified during this monitoring.

2008 Limerick City Walls Conservation and Management Plan. Unpublished Report for Limerick City Council and The Heritage Council. Tracy Collins, ÆGIS Archaeology Limited, 32 Nicholas St, King’s Island, Limerick. Editor’s note: Although carried out during 2011, the report on this work did not arrive in time for inclusion in the bulletin of that year