Limerick is situated about sixty miles from the coast at the lowest crossing point on the River Shannon. The island area to the north, known as King's Island (Inis-Sibtonn), formed by the Shannon and Abbey rivers, attracted settlement by the Vikings in the 9th century, and they were well established in the 10th century. An account of the sack of 'the fort and the good town' at Limerick in 968 describes a place of fabulous opulence (Todd 1876, 79, 81).

This core Danish town was later taken over by the Anglo-Normans at the end of the 12th century, and re-walled and extended to the north to form medieval English Town. Later the Irish borough on the southern side of the Abbey River was walled in 1310 - 1495 as Irish Town. Therefore, the city was like a figure-of-eight in the medieval period, with Baal's Bridge connecting the two halves.

The modern day city centre had its origins in the 18th century, and was located to the south-west of the old towns. The new town was planned grid fashion with straight lines and square blocks of buildings. Today the English Town can be entered from the city centre by proceeding along O'Connell Street, Patrick Street, Rutland Street, past the Hunt Museum and across Matthew bridge over the Abbey River (see map).
 

There were three archaeological excavations in Limerick before 1986. Since Ms Celie O'Rahilly was appointed Archaeologist by Limerick Corporation in 1986 there have been another eighteen or so excavations, excluding trial-trenching and monitoring work.

The excavations before 1986 were in the Dominican Abbey in 1975 (Shee Twohig 1995), at King John's Castle in 1976 (Sweetman 1980) and at West Watergate in the Irish Town in 1981 (Lynch 1984).

Since 1986 there have been six further excavations in the Irish Town, up to 1989. These were at Broad Street (Tarbett 1988), John's Street and the town wall (Hodkinson 1988, 1989a/b), Grattan Street and Curry Lane (Wiggins 1990a/b), and West Watergate II (Tarbett and Wiggins 1990). There has been no excavation in the Irish Town apart from monitoring and trial-trenching since 1989.

There have been about a dozen excavations in English Town on King's Island in the last ten years or so. These include the civic offices in the core Viking town, which failed to uncover any pre-Norman evidence (O'Rahilly 1988). There were two major campaigns at the castle, one a rescue excavation in 1990/1 (Wiggins 1991) and the other a research excavation between 1993 - 1995, the only research excavation ever undertaken in Limerick (Wiggins 1994, 1995,1996). Other sites include St. Mary's Cathedral in the core town (Hodkinson 1993), another investigation of the Dominican Abbey (Moran 1995), and a large-scale excavation of the remains of St. Francis's Abbey outside the walls to the east (Hurley 1997).

Evidence of pre-Norman settlement in Limerick city is extremely rare. There is no archaeological evidence of the core Danish town or its walls. Most of what we have comes from excavation in and around the castle relating to settlement to the north of the walled town.

As an example, a fairly large ditch in the boulder clay was found at Castle Lane in 1997, along the southern side of King John's Castle. It measured up to 2.50m wide by up to 1.10m deep. The infill provided no real dating evidence or clue to its use. The feature was cut by a fairly small Ostman-type Sunken Featured Structure (sunken building) of broad 12th-century date, measuring approx 5m by 3m, with a single large post-hole at each end.

Another example of the limited pre-Norman evidence is a stone feature from the research excavation at the castle in 1995. This was located about 6m below the yard of the castle, and only a very small area could be explored at this depth. It seemed to be part of the edge of an unknown structure aligned east-west, and comprised a mixture of large uprights and a tumble of smaller loosely coursed stones. Again, there was no precise dating evidence, and no clue to its overall nature and function.

We can be more confident about a stratigraphically later feature in the same area of the courtyard, about 5m below the present ground level of the castle. This was a limestone road, c.2.20m wide, which appears to have been in place when the Anglo-Normans first arrived in Limerick in 1172. The surface bisects the yard of the castle, climbing steadily from the Shannon towards Nicholas Street to the east. Part of it was revealed by excavation perpendicular to the eastern curtain wall in 1990. The great depth at which the road was revealed in 1995 made it impossible to investigate contemporary settlement evidence on either side of it to any great extent.

In terms of Anglo-Norman archaeology from the 1170s, and for a glimpse at the earliest fortifications at Limerick, King John's Castle is a very important site. The large quadrangular castle of the 13th century was preceded by a smaller oval earthwork situated below the northern half of the mature courtyard. Part of the southern side of this earthen enclosure was revealed by excavation in 1990, and more of it was revealed by the research work at the castle between 1993 - 5.

One of the most important archaeological discoveries made at Limerick occurred in 1990 when part of the southern side of the 12th-century enclosure was discovered, the earthen rampart faced by a rough limestone wall, and protected by a deep external ditch. The limestone face stands on part of the pre-Norman limestone road (see photograph).

This structure is very important, but it has been misrepresented in print on a number of occasions. Interpretations have ranged from pre-Norman 'defence system' (Wiggins 1991) to 'a section of the town defences' (Bradley 1995, 14). Tom McNeill in his recent book on castles in Ireland is tempted 'to identify it with a 12th-century Ua Briain fortification in the city' (McNeill 1997, 12). It is now possible to argue that the structure can be classified as an Anglo-Norman ringwork dating to 1175 - 1176, but it was a ringwork with a difference, constructed by the Anglo-Normans with the assistance of the Ostmen of the nearby Danish town.

The excavation revealed what was in fact a reconstructed version of the ringwork wall, securely mortared at the eastern end into the foundations of the northern section of the castle's eastern curtain wall (to the right of the photograph), and therefore datable to around 1205 - 1207. To make this intersection, part of the clay bank of the ringwork was dug out to insert the northern end of the eastern wall, extending south from the north-eastern corner tower. Secondly, at the southern limit of the new masonry, the ringwork wall was rebuilt using very large limestone boulders. The point at which the reconstruction stops against the original stonework of the ringwork is denoted by a change from the massive boulder style to coursing with smaller facings (at the left of the photograph). The end result was that for a time two quite different styles of masonry stood together, the limestone revetment representing a temporary limit to the Anglo-Norman curtain wall before it was extended further to the south after 1210.

The limestone revetment must be attributed to the Ostmen of Limerick, working in association with the powerful Anglo-Norman newcomers. It should not be considered to represent an 'Irish' style of construction. The fact is, there was no Irish settlement on King's Island at this time, and there hadn't been for a considerable period. As far as we can tell, the island was the domain of the Danish and later Ostman population of the town. It is not too wide of the mark to suggest that the walls of the Danish town, for which we have no archaeological evidence, would have looked something very like this (see photograph).

But the questions remain: when was the enclosure originally built, and who was responsible? There are actually only three candidates: the Ó Briain kings of Munster, the Ostman citizens of the town, and the Anglo-Normans who first entered the city in 1172.

Although the Ostmen were clearly behind the provision and repair of the enclosure's retaining wall, for a number of reasons they can be ruled out as prime movers in the creation of these defences. They were already securely established behind their own 'city walls' (Scott and Martin 1978, 151), and had no motive for building a detached fort. In any case, the Ó Briain kings, who had jurisdiction over the town, would never have allowed them to place such an obstacle next to the crossing point from Thomond.

But what about the Ó Briain kings themselves? There is a local legend that in 1172 Domnall Mór Ó Briain give his 'palace' to the clergy for the building of St Mary's Cathedral. This story has been accepted and repeated as historical fact in Limerick for years (eg.Spellissy and O'Brien 1989, 19). However, the reality is that it is no more than popular folklore, unsupported by documentary evidence.

The primary sources make it plain that the Ó Briain power base was well established before 1100 in the Killaloe (Cill-Dalua) area of Co. Clare on the banks of the Shannon, about 10 miles north-east of Limerick. The fort of Kincora (Ceann-coradh) is mentioned several times in the sources. For example, Kincora was sacked in 1088, 1116 and again in 1118 (O'Donovan 1990, 935, 1003 and 1007). In 1142, Conchobar Ó Briain died at Killaloe (ibid. 1067). His successor Toirdelbach Ó Briain when deposed in 1151 'went to Luimneach' for shelter (ibid. 1099 and 1101). This last reference makes no sense if the Ó Briain base was at Limerick to begin with. In contrast, annalistic references to Limerick, for example in 1157 and 1171, define it as a place of 'foreigners', meaning the Ostmen (ibid. 1125 and 1185). In short, the primary sources do not support the belief that the Ó Briain kings ruled from a base located within the Danish city.

The folklore that connects Domnall Ó Briain with St Mary's Cathedral in 1172 is further dispelled by the fact that at the Synod of Rathbressail in 1110 the parish of St Mary's was recognised, and St Mary's was given cathedral status (Begley 1993, 77). This is over sixty years before 1172, and before Domnall was even born! The only primary document linking Domnall with St Mary's is a charter dating to 1194, the year of his death, in The Black Book of Limerick. This document granted lands in Mungret and elsewhere to the church. It says nothing at all about Domnall having any part in the foundation of the church (MacCaffrey 1907, 34). Harold Leask dated much of the present building to 1180 - 1195 (Leask 1966, 45 - 47), but all of the work visible today would have replaced the structure that existed in 1110. Brian Hodkinson, when he excavated below the front wall of the cathedral in 1992 found that the masonry cut through underlying burials, confirming that an earlier church and not the 'palace' of Domnall might one day be found on the site by further excavation (Hodkinson 1993).

With the Ostmen and the Ó Briain kings eliminated, the earthen enclosure at the castle simply must be the work of the Anglo-Normans. After Domnall submitted to Henry II at Cashel in November 1171, Henry took control of Limerick and a garrison was sent there (Martin 1971, 61). This state of affairs ended in 1173 when Domnall changed sides by attacking the motte at Kilkenny, and ejecting the Anglo-Normans from Limerick (ibid., 64 - 65). In 1174 an expedition to Munster led by Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare (Strongbow) was defeated by Domnall at Thurles (ibid.). However, late in 1175, Raymond le Gros took the city by storm (Scott and Martin 1978, 149 - 153). Early in 1176 Domnall placed the city under siege (ibid., 161). Raymond marched back to Limerick, and took it a second time in April 1176. Domnall met Raymond near Killaloe and renewed his oath of fealty to Henry II (ibid., 163). At the end of May 1176 Raymond withdrew from Limerick on hearing of the news of the death of Strongbow. As soon as the garrison had departed, Domnall broke the bridge over the Abbey River, and set the town on fire (ibid., 167). His destruction of the town proves that the Ostmen had collaborated with the Anglo-Normans all along, in defiance of Domnall, in due course bringing down his vengeance upon them.

How do these well documented historical events relate to the earthwork at the castle? The position of the earthwork, and indeed of the later castle, was quite deliberately designed to discourage hostile activity on the island by the Ó Briain kings. Domnall Ó Briain would never have built a fort on the island that could be used potentially to inhibit his own access from Thomond. Its construction by the Anglo-Normans was made necessary by Domnall's change of sides in 1173, but work could not have been started until late 1175 when Raymond le Gros restored Anglo-Norman control. It may not have been completed when Domnall besieged the city in 1176, but was almost certainly finished in April - May 1176 before Raymond le Gros withdrew.

The logic of events and circumstances dictates that the earthen enclosure should be correctly viewed as an Anglo-Norman ringwork, albeit one made with the assistance of the local Ostmen, and datable to 1175 - 1176. Quite apart from anything else, the rumours of an Ó Briain fort in the city don't apply to this archaeological discovery in one crucial respect, as the whole point of the story is that the Ó Briain 'palace' was on the site of St Mary's Cathedral, whereas the enclosure excavated in 1990 is firmly on the site of Limerick Castle.

Once the Anglo-Normans left Limerick in 1176 they did not return until after Domnall's death in 1194 (O'Brien 1997, 46 - 47). In that time-span what happened to the ringwork, and indeed to the area around it?

A charter dated to 1200 makes a reference to the 'cantred of the Ostmen and the Holy Island' outside the walled city (Lenihan 1967, 48 - 49), suggesting that Ostman settlement had expanded beyond the old walls. This movement must have been to the north of the Island, where there was plenty of available space as far as the bridge into Thomond as well as beyond it. The process of gradually spreading Ostman settlement is strikingly well represented in the archaeological record at the castle.

The evidence revealed at the base of the ringwork ditch was most unexpected. The interior of it was divided into lots by post-and-wattle fences. This activity started when the ditch was still a completely open feature, and carried on until it was totally infilled with clay deposits. Such domestic exploitation is quite out of keeping with what we would regard as the ditch's primary purpose, ie to help defend the interior of a military stronghold. This archaeological evidence proves by itself that this was not an Ó Briain fort, as Domnall would never have allowed its defences to be compromised in this way - but neither was it an Ostman fortification, as it was the Ostmen themselves who were busily filling in the ditch. The evidence confirms that within a short space of time after its construction the builders of the ringwork packed up and left. This fits the time-span 1176 - 1195 when we know that the Anglo-Normans were absent from Limerick.

Only one structure has been found in the interior of the ringwork. This was an Ostman-style Sunken Featured Structure (SFS 4), established along the inner edge of the northern curve of the enclosure rampart. This was found on the research excavation at the northern side of the courtyard in 1993 - 1994. The building was a plank-lined, plank-floored square measuring about 3.20m along each of the sides. The construction of sunken buildings has been identified in other urban societies with Viking origins, for example at Waterford (Walsh 1997).

Meanwhile, a row of Sunken Featured Structures was established outside the ringwork ditch to the south. SFS 3 was constructed after the ringwork ditch had become completely infilled. The excavated primary floor level of the basement was made of soft clay, with associated sill-beam slots and post-holes. The outline of vertical plank walling was visible along the sides, and a stone-lined entrance passage survived to the east. A later floor level in the basement was made of stone and gravel. The stone-lined entrance passage shows again the Ostman taste for limestone facings, similar to the southern side of the ringwork, located just 15m to the north of SFS 3.

These structures are the earliest house sites yet excavated in the city. They appear to belong to the 'cantred of the Ostmen' referred to in the charter of 1200. They are important because of their rarity in Limerick (all six of them are in or just outside the limits of the castle), and because of the total absence so far of any dwelling sites of the core Danish town further south.

A map in Trinity College Dublin dating to about 1590 provides a very good overview of the medieval city (Hill 1991, 28; Hodkinson 1990, 47). From 1195 the core Danish town to the south of the King's Island was taken over, colonised by the Anglo-Normans, and re-walled in the 13th century as English Town. The development of the castle early in the 13th century shows that the Ostmen renewed their partnership with the Anglo-Normans, but ultimately the interests of the Ostmen were secondary. Sunken Featured Structures 1 - 4 were all dismantled and backfilled at this time as work on the great castle progressed, causing their owners to find living space elsewhere.

The High Street of the medieval period corresponds today with Mary Street and Nicholas Street, extending from Baal's Bridge to the south to Thomond Bridge into Clare to the north, skirting around the castle (see map). The parish churches were St Mary's, which still exists (Hewson 1944), St Nicholas's, to the south of the castle, demolished in the second half of the 17th century, and St Munchin's, to the north of the castle, rebuilt in the 19th century (Westropp 1904-5, 357 - 359).

The monastic houses were spread out along the eastern side of the town. The priory of the Fratres Cruciferi near Baal's Bridge, was founded around 1211 (Hodkinson 1990); St Francis's Abbey, outside the walls, was established in 1267 (Begley 1993, 355 - 356); St Peter's Cell, an Augustinian nunnery, was apparently founded in 1172; and the Dominican Priory, dedicated to St Saviour, is dated to 1227 (Shee Twohig 1995, 111). The last two were originally built outside the walls but later included within walled English Town.

The walling of the English Town must have taken up much of the 13th century. We have no information on the building of the walls apart from the fact that a murage grant to raise a toll on the passage of goods through the town was made in 1237, and was to last for six years (Thomas 1992, II, 146). Clearly, the core Danish town, probably corresponding roughly with the parish of St Mary's had to be re-walled. An inner wall with its own gate, Newgate, is indicated on the 1590 map, which may represent the northern limit of the original town. In addition, the northern half of the English Town had to be walled for the first time. It is possible that this was accomplished by building out from Thomond Bridge in both directions at the same time, until the circuit was completed.

The English Town had twelve gates, including Newgate in the inner wall (ibid.). In 1760, all of these were still intact; today only the watergate of the castle survives. There were a number of mural towers in addition, and one or two of these features survive in some form or other, to the north of Thomond Bridge, and along the eastern side.

There is a small amount of archaeological evidence in the cantred of the Ostmen which might possibly relate to the initial Anglo-Norman colonisation of English Town. Part of the southern side of a mud-floored building was found on the rescue excavation in Castle Lane along the southern side of the castle in 1997. Unfortunately, it was not possible to reveal the full outline of the structure. This is the first time that an early house site has been found in Limerick that does not have a sunken floor. It had a post-and-wattle wall, and was built next to an existing post-and-wattle boundary. This information survived in stake-hole form only. The structure is difficult to date with accuracy. However, part of an identical mud floor was found approx. 7.5m due north. The stratigraphy in this case hinted at the possibility that the flooring was cut by the original version of the castle ditch - not the ringwork ditch of 1175 - 1176, but the first ditch cut around the enlarged castle between 1210 - 1212. Therefore, these mud-floored dwellings could relate to primary Anglo-Norman colonisation in the cantred of the Ostmen between c.1200 - 1210. These structures did not front dirctly onto the main street to the east, but must have been accessed from a lane parallel with the street. A document survives dated 1200, granting Robert Sergeant four burgages, including '...two in the island towards the city, near the bridge, wherever the bridge may be, for the service of 4s. per annum' (Lenihan 1967, 48). This description could be taken to refer roughly to the location of the excavated buildings in Castle Lane.

The castle itself, as well as being a fortification in its own right, was also included in the circuit of the English Town walls (see map). The watergate at the base of the western curtain was important both as an entry to the castle and as an exit from English Town. The castle's imposing twin-towered gate-house is original to the structure, ie dating to between 1200 - 1212, but the expansion of the castle along the edge of the river would have occurred later - how much later is dificult to say. A hall with an undercroft was added to the inside of the western curtain wall in 1280. The superstructure was demolished around 1800, but the undercroft is well preserved, and most of it was excavated out during the research excavation at the castle between 1993 - 1995. The surviving fabric awaits full conservation for display to the public.

Part of the English Town wall survives to the north of Thomond Bridge, forming the western boundary of St Munchin's churchyard. A small mural tower survives where the circuit turns towards Island Gate, the northern limit of English Town (Leask 1941, 97 - 98). Another extant stretch of the standing wall bounds the eastern side of the Dominican Abbey. The northern wall of the abbey church still stands today (Shee Twohig 1995, 105 - 108). The town wall here includes a projecting feature with two arched recesses (Leask 1941, 99). This feature may originally have been a sallyport allowing the monks access to and from their land outside the wall at this point; another possibility is that it was actually a garderobe provided for the monastery (B. Hodkinson, pers comm.).

Slightly further south, another length of the wall stands which would have bounded the eastern side of the Augustinian nunnery, St Peter's Cell. Today only modern houses stand where the Cell once existed.

In the southern half of the English Town, there are no standing remains of the wall. However, recent excavation along the line of the northern relief road by Celie O'Rahilly in 1997 unearthed a massive stretch along the eastern side of the circuit, between Gaol Lane Gate and Fish Lane Gate. This area would originally have belonged to St Francis's Abbey, which was located adjacent to it.

The Irish Town is also represented on the 1590 map of Limerick (O'Rahilly 1995, 166; Lynch 1984, Plate 1a). The Irish Town was walled over a very long period of time, between 1310 and 1495 (Lynch 1984, 285). The town had six gates, including the excavated West Watergate, and a number of mural towers (Thomas 1992, II, 147). No outworks were represented on the map. The street pattern was Y-shaped in plan, comprising Broad Street, John's Street, and Mungret Street. Most of the settlement appeared to congregate on the main north-south line; Mungret Street, which is presently being heavily redeveloped, seems to have been relatively deserted in the late 16th century. An important building known as Thom Core or Drumcore Castle stood at the junction of the streets, but efforts by Brian Hodkinson to locate any remains of it by trial-trenching in 1990 failed to produce results (Hodkinson 1991). There were two parish churches: St John's, re-built in the 19th century, and St Michael's, outside the walls to the north-west, which seems to have been demolished early in the 17th century (Lynch 1984, 284).

The longest continuous stretch of the town wall in Limerick is along the eastern side of the Irish Town. Restoration work here by the Civic Trust has been on-going for a number of years, with a great deal still to do. Behind the wall is a massive earthen rampart dating to 1690, with its own retaining wall on the other side.

A feature of this length of the wall is one of the mural towers, Cogan's tower, dating to c.1430 (Leask 1941, 102). This was a D-shaped tower, with an arch built on wicker centring, the base of which was investigated in 1988. The surviving doorway leads right through the 1690 rampart behind, and there is also access within to the top of the wall (Hodkinson 1989b).

The site of West Watergate was the subject of two excavations, in 1981 and 1989. The gate itself, excavated in 1981, was twin-towered, and would have resembled the gate-house of Limerick Castle. It was the only one of the seventeen gates of the city to be built in this way (Lynch 1984). Inside, in 1989, the base of another tower was found, with a base batter and a garderobe chute. Part of West Watergate Lane was found to the south of this, consisting of a cobblestone road 3.5m wide with wheel-ruts deeply worn onto some of the stones. In addition, spanning the lane, was an inner gate tower, 6m square. The lane was bounded by walls on either side that linked the inner gate tower with the outer twin towers. The whole area gives the impression of being very elaborate and heavily fortified. This was probably because West Watergate was of particular strategic importance as it was fairly close to Baal's Bridge which connected the two towns (Tarbett and Wiggins 1990).

In the later medieval period, more houses in the English Town came to be built in stone. Part of one such property, known as Bourke's house, stands a little back from the east side of Nicholas Street. Limited archaeological investigations took place close to this building in the summer of 1997 (Henry 1997).

Towards the end of the 16th century, fears for the security of the city and its English population led to concern about the town defences, and some steps were taken to strengthen them in line with current continental practice. A map in the Hunt Museum, dating to about 1600, illustrates ideas for improving the English Town defences (Kerrigan 1995, 43). These suggested changes included a bridgehead at Thomond Bridge, a ravelin at the Island Gate, a half-bulwark around the Dominican Abbey side of the town, and another outwork stretching between Little Island Gate and Fish Lane Gate. Similar additions were made to the Irish Town.

Many of these new defences were depicted on John Speed's well known map of about 1610, which suggests that the improvements to the defences were actually real and not merely proposals (Hill 1991, 27; Lynch 1984, Plate 1b). The drawing shows the Thomond Gate bridgehead, the Island Gate ravelin, and the half-bulwark further along. In the Irish Town, a type of bastion is represented at the south-east corner, and an outwork near John's Gate. There is also a detached fort near the south-west corner of the Irish Town. According to the map, the Irish Town was completely surrounded by water.

The only fortification of this period, ie around 1600, to survive is part of the angle bastion added by Sir Josias Bodley to the south-eastern corner of the castle (see map). This was built between 1608 -11. This corner of the castle had not been provided with a round tower as the others were in the medieval period, and was therefore exceedingly weak. The platform was capable of supporting five or six pieces of artillery. The surviving masonry of the bastion illustrates the quality of the straight edges and raking faces of Italian-style military architecture. At the same time, Bodley also cut a new ditch around the castle (Brewer and Bullen 1873, 216).

A somewhat later addition to the town wall defences, dated to 1650, was the Citadel in Irish Town (Hill 1991, 53 - 54). This is just to the east of John's Gate, and was built on the inside of the wall, ie like the castle bastion it was designed principally to repel attack from inside the city. The gate building is now incorporated into the grounds of St John's Hospital. With the advent of this structure we are moving beyond the scope of this paper into Limerick's great siege era of 1651 - 1691, a good point at which to conclude.

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