Aegis Archaeology - Testing at Sheep Street, Limerick

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Sheep Street

Testing at Sheep Street, Limerick

Limerick City Medieval Town Wall
R582/557
02E1318

This is a site in the centre of the Englishtown quarter, which had been a vacant lot. The site of two medieval gates, Gaol Lane Gate to the south and Abbey Gate to the north are on the line of the site boundary.

Sheep Street Town wall

The purpose of this testing was to ascertain the nature of the archaeological deposits on site. A desk-based impact assessment and building inspection was undertaken as part of the project. Buildings close by included Fanning's Tower House and The Market House, both on Mary Street. Twelve trenches were dug. Most of the archaeological material encountered was a black organic layer, in place up to 2m deep in certain places. Although obviously archaeological it could not be accurately dated due to the lack of diagnostic artefacts. A later feature identified as a small local clay pipe kiln was found in the west of the site, perhaps originally located within a structure, which included large amounts of unused clay pipe fragments. Fragments of similar pipes were recovered during the excavations at Charlotte's Quay, across the Abbey River from this site. They were identified as being of Irish manufacture, bearing a stamp and the legend "While I Live I'll Crow", dating to the nineteenth century. A kiln was not found at that time however, so it may be that these pipes were made locally in a kiln such as the one found at Sheep Street. The Town Wall was just below the surface and was faced on both sides with a rubble core of limestone.

(posted first half 2003)

Excavation at Sheep Street, Limerick City Medieval Town Wall

This excavation was carried out in July and August 2003, and concerned the partial excavation of the Medieval Town Wall of Limerick. This, stretch, at almost 55m in length, was found to be 1.9m thick, and was set between the gates of Bonfields/Abbey gate at the east end of Meat Market Lane and Gaol Lane Gate at the east end of Gaol Lane in.. What was surprising in relation to the Town Wall was the extent of the subsurface, at its maximum over 2.5m in depth.

Town wall exposed, from S

The excavation also revealed that while the outer (eastern) face of the Town wall was parallel to Sheep Street, the inner western face of the wall is beneath the present day street. Also at the limits of the excavation to the north of the site the Town Wall clearly veered northwest and under the present Sheep Street. The present line of Sheep Street is therefore not exactly where it ran in medieval times, when the Town Wall was extant, and it is likely that it ran just inside and parallel to the inner face of the Town Wall on medieval times. When the Town walls were removed from the 1690s to the 1770s, Sheep Street must have been realigned, and straightened, though only slightly, to the east, which would have made it partially overlie the medieval wall remains. The Town Wall was then made use of as a foundation upon which houses were later built.

Town wall exposed, from N

A ditch or fosse outside the Town Wall was not discovered during the excavation. It was noted on site and substantiated by the topographical survey, that the site sloped substantially from west to east. The Town Wall seems to have been built on top of a slope, which would have meant that the ground outside the Town Wall would have been much lower than on the inside. If this was the case then the necessity for a fosse outside the wall may have been negated. Indeed the area outside the Town wall may have also been already quite marshy due to the proximity of the Abbey River some 150m or so to the east and this may have also led to there being either no fosse at this point along the wall or a perhaps a shallow one, which has now been lost in the archaeological record due to subsequent activity.

Artefacts retrieved during this excavation were predominantly seventeenth century dump-material of animal bone and pottery sherds (most commonly from North Devon-Britain), with only a few sherds of pottery of medieval date being found.

(posted 1st half 2004)