2023:586 - Askeaton Castle, Askeaton, Limerick

Monitoring at Askeaton was undertaken in what could be considered the medieval heart of the town, across the bridge and in the area immediately to the west, along Main Street and West Square.

The castle
Monitoring works within the castle entrance revealed two cobbled surfaces of post-medieval or modern origin. It is likely that a void once existed here, to facilitate a drawbridge entrance that has been filled in. However, excavation works did not penetrate deep enough to identify any infill material. Nothing of medieval date was identified during the works in this area.

The Bridge
Works along the bridge suggest that the southern side of the structure is post-medieval or modern in date, and that both sets of parapets are relatively modern, being identical in construction. This confirms suspicions held by the archaeologist working on behalf of the OPW in Askeaton Castle (Dave Pollock pers comm.), who suggested on-site that only the northern side of the bridge is medieval in date. The is possibly backed up by the fact that the arches on the northern and southern sides of the bridge differ in construction, which may be the result of construction at different times.

Excavation along the southern side of Main Street possibly suggest that the bridge parapet once extended further to the west.

The town
The monitoring works have revealed that significant demolition of structures has been undertaken in Askeaton, judging by the quantity of stone in the excavated pipe trench. The material excavated from within the trenches was infill material from this demolition, dating to the late 18^th to 19^th centuries, based on the pottery recovered. Brick within the trenches also indicates post-medieval or modern demolition, or the demolition of post-medieval or modern structures. Judging from the fragmentary quality of the cobbled surfaces exposed west of the bridge there has been substantial disturbance to the area under the footpath, both historically, and as a result of the excavation of service trenches. There was also little evidence in the road crossings for evidence of previous road surfaces through the town, even along Main Street, which can be considered the main thoroughfare.

What is evident is that, at least within the confines of the excavation trenches, no medieval streetscape for Askeaton survives intact. We can possibly infer that this suggests an overall demolition of the older medieval streetscape. The medieval street would have been narrower than its current form, and it would be expected to discover remnants of this streetscape, or at least evidence of plot layout, under the current footpath. Unfortunately, due to the narrow nature of the trenches for this scheme, we cannot definitively state that no such streetscape survives, only that none was evident within the trenches excavated as part of this scheme.

Little evidence for structures was identified overall, with only the remains of three walls identified.

Wall A.

This lies along the eastern side of West Square. The eastern half of this wall had been demolished previously to a level 0.7m below the modern pavement, while the western half was still intact, only 0.3m below the level of the current road. A fragment of late 18^th to 19^th-century pottery was recovered from the sticky deposit adhering to this wall, although it is unclear whether this represents a date of disturbance, or a date of construction. The wall is parallel to the existing street front, and possibly represents an earlier structure or boundary wall. The wall was left in-situ

Wall B

This short section of wall was located along the front of a car park to the east of a chemist shop. It lines up with other buildings along the northern side of main street, and there are structures here on the first edition 6-inch OS map, but gone by the time of the first edition 25-inch map, although boundary walls are visible at this location. The modern nature of the material directly overlying this wall suggests that it was demolished in the late 20^th century. This wall was left in situ.

Wall C

This wall corner lies in the middle of what is now an unnamed accessway along the western bank of the river, and it appears to tie in with neither the 6-inch or 25-inch maps. Unfortunately, there are no readily available maps of Askeaton pre-dating 1841 that give an indication of layout prior to this time. Lewis, in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) indicates that the town has ‘spacious quays’. These are not clearly marked or identifiable on the 1841 map, although this entire west bank is labelled as ‘liable to floods’ on the 1841 map. Paintings of this section of the town, looking towards the castle from the abbey, indicate structures on the western bank, but it is unclear how these correspond to Wall C.

R000600

Metal detection of stripped surfaces and spoil-heaps was undertaken on the project using a Viking VK20 metal detector. No archaeological objects were identified during the use of the metal detector.

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