2022:870 - Navan Town Defences: Abbey Road Yard Bastion, Meath

In 2022 Meath County Council, using a National Monuments Service grant from the Community Monuments Fund, completed conservation works on a section of the Navan Town Walls ME025-044003 – Town Defences / Protected Structure NT025-098 / NIAH 14009568 at ITM 686952, 767964 in Abbeylands South townland. S14 Ministerial Consent C001146 – Navan Town Walls, Co. Meath CMF22-1-ME004. The wall forms the southern boundary to the Meath County Council Abbey Road Yard and measured roughly 22m E-W x up to 5m high. Within the Abbey Road Yard, a further section of the Town Wall 8m long on the W side of the site forms part of a dangerous structure and was not subject to repair works. On its southern face the Town Wall is only around 1.50m-1.75m high due to a significant difference in ground level between the southern and northern faces.
In 2021 a conservation and management plan was commissioned by Meath County Council and a grant for works in 2022 was given. Initial vegetation clearance was undertaken in January 2022, with the Conservation works being completed between September and November 2022.
The Town Wall base c.1m is abutted by a large, mass concrete loading platform c.1930. This platform pins the base of the wall in situ and overlaps slightly with the Bastion. The Bastion is an outward-curving tower segment with an external diameter of around 7m. It contains reused pecked stonework and has had numerous repairs: but is around 5m high and forms a focal part of this Town Wall section.
The main wall face rises around 2m above the level of the concrete loading platform and the eastern end has been abutted by a large masonry-faced buttress 2m x 6m x around 3m high. This buttress, which is filled with glacial-till soils in the manner of 18th century bridges – continues into the adjacent property. The buttress had detached from the main wall face with a large, open crack. The buttress may have been required when this area was mined with very large sand quarries, as seen on the 1837 OS.
The upper part (1.75m-2m high) of the Wall had been incorporated into buildings dating to around 1800 (and demolished in the 1990s). These buildings included new windows and doors punched into the wall and door jambs are faced with red brick. The wall at this level is still around 0.60m thick and it continues for a further 30m to the east along adjacent properties.
Conservation work focussed on raking out, repointing, re-facing, flaunching and consolidation of voids and wall heads using appropriate lime mortar mixes. Buttress stonework was uncovered when clearing modern dumped waste debris at the eastern end of the site. The buttress was cleaned down, repointed and a corner partly rebuilt after a mortar sample was retrieved.In 2022 Meath County Council, using a National Monuments Service grant from the Community Monuments Fund, completed conservation works on a section of the Navan Town Walls, ME025-044003 – Town Defences/Protected Structure NT025-098/NIAH 14009568 in Abbeylands South townland. S14 Ministerial Consent C001146 – Navan Town Walls, Co. Meath CMF22-1-ME004. The wall forms the southern boundary to the Meath County Council Abbey Road Yard and measured roughly 22m east-west by up to 5m high. Within the Abbey Road Yard, a further section of the Town Wall 8m long on the west side of the site forms part of a dangerous structure and was not subject to repair works. On its southern face the Town Wall is only around 1.5-1.75m high due to a significant difference in ground level between the southern and northern faces.
In 2021 a conservation and management plan was commissioned by Meath County Council and a grant for works in 2022 was given. Initial vegetation clearance was undertaken in January 2022, with the conservation works being completed between September and November 2022.
The Town Wall base c.1m wide is abutted by a large, mass concrete loading platform dating from c.1930. This platform pins the base of the wall in situ and overlaps slightly with the Bastion. The Bastion is an outward-curving tower segment with an external diameter of around 7m. It contains reused pecked stonework and has had numerous repairs but is around 5m high and forms a focal part of this Town Wall section.
The main wall face rises around 2m above the level of the concrete loading platform and the eastern end has been abutted by a large masonry-faced buttress 2m x 6m x c. 3m high. This buttress, which is filled with glacial-till soils in the manner of 18th-century bridges – continues into the adjacent property. The buttress had detached from the main wall face with a large, open crack. The buttress may have been required when this area was mined with very large sand quarries, as seen on the 1837 OS.
The upper part (1.75-2m high) of the wall had been incorporated into buildings dating to around 1800 (and demolished in the 1990s). These buildings included new windows and doors punched into the wall and door jambs are faced with red brick. The wall at this level is still around 0.6m thick and it continues for a further 30m to the east along adjacent properties.
Conservation work focussed on raking-out, repointing, re-facing, flaunching and consolidation of voids and wall heads using appropriate lime mortar mixes. Buttress stonework was uncovered when clearing modern dumped waste debris at the eastern end of the site. The buttress was cleaned down, repointed and a corner partly rebuilt after a mortar sample was retrieved.