2015:466 - Athlunkard Street/Sheep Street, Limerick, Limerick

The site is located on King’s Island, Limerick close to an existing section of the city wall beside the now extant Abbey Gate. Five trenches were excavated in the location of the proposed pile caps and foundations trenches. The trenches were excavated to a depth in excess of 0.3m below the excavated base of the pile caps (to establish a buffer), and to a width of 3m. The five trenches excavated continued the numbering system used during the excavation of six test-trenches by TVAS Ireland Ltd., and were therefore named Trenches 7 – 11 (Trench 7 ran the entire length of the site parallel to Sheep Street; the other trenches were at right angles to this and were numbered from north to south, with Trench 8 running alongside Athlunkard Street and Trench 11 alongside Meatmarket Lane).

Trench 7

Trench 7 is located at the eastern edge of the site running parallel to Sheep Street. There was a good deal of modern disturbance within the trench including two modern vertically-set plastic drainage pipes. The material within the trench appeared to be disturbed post-medieval dumped deposits encountered across the site, but was substantially deeper in this trench.

Trench 8

Trench 8 is located at the northern edge of the site running parallel to Athlunkard Street. The trench was excavated to two different levels, with the eastern 4m excavated to a depth of 0.55m below the western edge of the trench. The main deposit within the trench was a dark-brown silty-clay with occasional inclusions of angular and sub-angular stones and occasional charcoal flecking. Large amounts of animal bone were recovered from the deposit, in addition to a decorated bone comb and several sherds of medieval and post-medieval ceramic. An east-west orientated wall that was located along the southern edge of the trench. It had been partially removed by Test-trench 1 and appears to represent only the foundation layers. It survived to a length of 2.62m and was 0.6m wide and 0.28m deep. It was constructed with roughly shaped or unworked limestone, the largest measured 0.6m x 0.2m, but they were generally 0.2m in diameter and were bonded with a grey-white lime mortar with inclusions of small angular and sub-angular gravel.

A post-medieval well was also identified on the northern edge of the trench. The cut for the well had been cut from a higher layer. The well had an internal diameter of 0.7m, and external diameter of 1.6m, and was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.1m. It was roughly built using unworked limestone fragments, although a few appeared to have been roughly shaped and may have been re-used.

Trench 9

Trench 9 ran parallel to Trench 8 approximately 2.5m to the south. The trench was excavated to two different levels, with the eastern 5m excavated to a depth of 0.55m below the western edge of the trench. The earliest identified context was a right-angled wall that had been partially disturbed by a previous test-trench with the upper course surviving only in the south-west extent. The wall measured 3.8m east-west by 1.9m, and was 0.84m wide and 0.35m thick and was bonded with grey-white lime mortar with gravel inclusions. The southern edge of the wall appears to have been disturbed at some point, possibly in attempt to repair it.

Trench 10

A north-east/south-west-orientated wall [c151] ran across the entire trench and was approximately 0.4m wide. It was regularly coursed and constructed with angular or sub-angular limestone blocks with scant limestone mortar only visible on 2nd course. A soft mid-brown grey silty-clay with butchered bone and moderate charcoal flecking appears to have been dumped next to the wall. It contained several sherds of medieval pottery and occasional oyster shell and was seen to be over 1m deep.

At the western end of the trench a small section of what appeared to be a keyhole kiln was identified, with only the flue and part of bowl visible. The kiln was lined with faced and roughly coursed sub-angular limestone blocks, the largest of which measured 0.54m x 0.2m x 0.2m but were on average 0.3m x 0.2m x 0.2m. The flue consisted of a least three courses of stone but the feature was not fully excavated. The primary deposits identified within the kiln were very soft white yellow to orange-red ashy silty-clay with occasional charcoal inclusions, located in the flue, and (c158) which was located in the bowl and would appear to represent the last firing in the kiln.

A series of 107 stakes were identified within the trench with a further 47 stakes identified during the testing undertaken by TVAS in Trench 6 that were outside the current trench. The stakes were between 0.2m and 1.3m in length, with the shorter stakes more commonly softwood that were often impacted upon on top of wall mentioned above. The larger hardwood stakes were mostly a square shape that tapered down to a point that had often been burnt to harden it. It is unclear what structure the stakes formed, although they appeared to be roughly on the same north-east/south-west alignment as the aforementioned wall.

The main deposit within the trench was a compact mid-grey silty-clay with frequent charcoal inclusions and occasional inclusions of burnt clay, shells and sub-angular stones. These contexts had a mixture of medieval and post-medieval finds and suggest an episode to raise the ground level.

Trench 11

A south-west/north-east-orientated wall was located in the south-western corner of the trench. It measured 3m in length and was 0.6m wide. It consisted of roughly coursed medium to large faced stones that were generally sub-rectangular in shape. A cobbled surface ran most of length of the trench. It was a well-constructed surface with the cobbles varying in size with largest 0.35m x 0.3m with smaller ones 0.15m x 0.1m. Several stones were worn smooth and the frequent voids between the stones suggest that the packing material may have washed out. Towards the eastern end of the trench a small wall or kerb [c145] was identified. It was a poorly mortared feature of roughly faced limestone blocks that had three identifiable courses. Several levelling deposits had been dumped upon the cobbled surface.

A north-south arrangement of square and sub-rectangular voids was identified cutting through the aforementioned deposits and they appear to represent the remains of stakes that had been driven into the ground and then removed.  There were 13 stake-holes identified and they were on a similar north-south alignment, and therefore may be contemporary with those identified in Trench 10. While the stakes were still standing a small cobbled surface or wall was build around them as the cobbles appear to have been deliberately placed around the upstanding stakes. The wall was 1.3m wide east-west and 0.3m thick. It consisted of a single course of angular small to mid-sized generally flat stones.

Shanarc Archaeology Ltd, 39A Hebron Rd, Leggetsrath West, Kilkenny