Cromwells Fort (Site of)-Hachured — Limerick City

This fort was located at the northern end of King’s Island outside the walled city of Limerick and dates from the period of the Cromwellian war in Ireland (1649-53). In June 1651, the Cromwellian army, under the command of Henry Ireton, came before Limerick and immediately began to invest the city with siege works (see LI005-017183-). Ireton initially set up camp to the north of the city where he erected a large fort (LI005-114----). On 19 June he attempted to storm King’s Island by an assault on Thomond Bridge. This was repulsed and four days later he attempted a pre-dawn amphibious attack on the island. A small detachment arrived on the island ahead of the main body and attacked the fort but these were pushed back and a number were killed or drowned as they tried to escape. The remainder of the assault force abandoned the attack and returned to the Clare side of the Shannon. Despite a sustained bombardment Limerick managed to hold out over the following months but eventually surrendered at the end of October 1651. Without doubt the fort on King’s Island continued to be garrisoned throughout this siege. The fort is represented on William Webb’s map of the siege as a regular square fortification with corner bastions surrounded by a fosse forming an overall star-shaped plan: a single roofed building is shown within the interior. The fort is identified in the map index simply as ‘Ye fort in ye island’ (O’Flaherty 2010, map 10, no. 65). It is evident that it was abandoned and allowed to fall into decay but was refortified again during War of the Two Kings, 1688-91. The Jacobite officer, John Stevens, records in his journal that when he arrived at Limerick after the defeat of the Boyne in July 1690 ‘there were only the ruins of a small fort in the island, the rest being partly a common walk for the citizens and let out for grazing’ (Murray 1912, 147). William arrived with his army before Limerick on 9 August 1690 and immediately commenced a siege. At this time the Jacobites were busy strengthening the defences and Stevens remarks in his entry for 12 August that ‘The unarmed men were continually kept at work, the chief part whereof was in the King's Island, where was raised a square fort with four bulwarks, on one of them a small platform for three or four guns to play over the branch of the river that makes the island, where it was thought the enemy designed to raise a battery, having made some odd shots from thence.’ And again, on 16 August he noted that ‘All our unarmed men were continually kept at work, some fortifying the Kings Island’ (ibid., 169-70) which included ‘an entrenchment or covered way was made about the King's Island to secure it from all attempts, and in the middle of it a Fort Royal with four bastions and a line of communication to the English town.’ (ibid., 196). The fort is shown in the schematic panorama included by Story in his ‘History’ where it identified as ‘A new Irish fort’ (1693, facing 38; attached). The entrenchments are visible along the northern side of the island but the fort is shown as free-standing without any link to the city. The siege did not go well for William and, after suffering heavy casualties, he eventually abandoned it at the end of August. Stevens’ description of the fort is paralleled by that given by the Williamite, Colonel Michael Richards, who noted in his diary during the second siege in 1691, that it was ‘well frized and palisadoed, environed with a handsome counterscarp. Several projects were conceived to attack it, it being first proposed to make a very good battery at the water's edge to cover our passage; but this ground is very low and swampy, which, I apprehend, will put an end to this new design; besides, the fort is so large that all our cannon planted on one battery on this side cannot hinder the enemies from sustaining the said fort with their whole force on the other side, having advantageous ground for it, and a double line of communication to the town’ (Gilbert 1892, 288-9). And again, his account is further supported by the Williamite chronicler, George Story, who noted ‘great improvements in the King's Island’ which had ‘a most excellent fort with a double line of communication from thence to the town, mann'd for the most part by the best of their dragoons dismounted’ (Story 1693, 213, 277). As depicted on both Story’s (ibid., facing 224) and Goubet’s maps (O’Flaherty 2010, map 13) it is evident that, besides upgrading the existing fort’s earthworks, the most significant undertaking was the addition of a substantial counterscarp and glacis. When Limerick surrendered on 3 October the fortifications were handed over to the Williamites. The fort is depicted on the map of the city drawn by William Eyres c. 1752 and identified in the map index as the ‘Fort in the King’s Island; from which the Irish had a communication with the town.’ (O’Flaherty 2010, map 16). The map shows that the counterscarp and glacis had been gradually reclaimed as fields, and a small number of dwellings are depicted near the south-west corner bastion. The fort was further degraded over the ensuing decades and by the time of the OS survey of 1840-1 had been reduced to a four-pointed star with curved sides where it was named ‘(Site of) Cromwell’s Fort’. It continued to be represented as such on subsequent surveys and revisions until it was entirely removed when St Mary’s Park housing estate was built on the site by Limerick corporation in the 1930s. LI005-018----_01 Panorama of the siege of Limerick, 1690, from G. Story, An impartial history of the wars in Ireland with a continuation thereof (1693), facing 38. LI005-018----_02 Plan of the siege of Limerick, 1691, from G. Story, An impartial history of the wars in Ireland with a continuation thereof (1693), facing 224. LI005-018----_03 Extract from the plan of the siege of Limerick, 1691, from G. Story, An impartial history of the wars in Ireland with a continuation thereof (1693), facing 224. Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 6 March 2018