Town defences in Townparks (navan Lower By.)

Although murage at Navan had been collected since 1470 at least (Moore 1893, 59), the walling might never have been completed. After Navan had been plundered by O’Neill and O’Donnell in 1539, the Irish Parliament imposed a charge on every ploughland in Meath in 1543 in order to fund the construction of walls for Navan. The funding drive might not have been completely successful as in 1593 Navan was listed as a market town rather than a walled town (Bradley and King 1985, 94-5, 98). The walls were completed however and were maintained into the eighteenth century. In 1746 an order was made to repair breaches in the town walls which were allowing goods into the weekly markets free of tolls, but by the end of the century widening of the streets removed the town gates at Dublin Gate in 1786, Watergate in 1788 and Trimgate in 1796 (Ellison 1963, 42-6). From the property boundaries depicted on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map the line taken by the town wall can be identified. It describes a rough rectangle backing onto the River Boyne at E. From the SE corner it extended W from the river behind the houses on the N side of Church Hill, turning N to join Trimgate St. c. 50m from its junction with Railway St. From there it continued N towards Abbey Rd through the re-developed shopping area, but turned E while still S of that road, crossed the junction with Watergate St and continued down to the Boyne. A section of the town wall (L 15m; T 0.8m; H c. 5m) with a section of a semi-circular bastion at its W end survives behind the houses on the S side of Abbey Road. The upper part of the wall and tower are probably reconstructed where they are not bonded, although they are bonded at the bottom. Other fragments could survive in the curving N property boundary of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic church. Archaeological testing (E002336) by S. Halliday of a broadband trench through the streets during 2006-7 identified (excavations.ie 2008:973) two N-S walls at the base of Timmon’s Lane, which run parallel with the River Boyne. One wall (Wth 2.4m plus; H 5m plus) consisted of large limestone blocks (max. dims 0.85m x 0.6m; T 0.5m) bonded with mortar. Other evidence of the town wall was recorded (E002905) by E. Corcoran (2007) at Kennedy Road (excavations.ie 2007:1352). The top of a wide ditch (Wth 6.5-6.65m) filled with greyish brown silty clays that had stones and redeposited natural appeared in three trenches on the line of the town wall as well as pits and other features cut into the natural which was close to the surface in one trench. The ditch could either be a defensive ditch or a robber trench to retrieve stones from the wall. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 10 July 2007 Revised: 29 March 2023 Bradley, J. and King, H. A. 1985 Urban archaeological survey – county Meath. Unpublished report commissioned by the OPW, Dublin Corcoran, E. 2007 Report on an Archaeological Assessment at Kennedy Road, Navan, Co. Meath. Licence: E002905. Unpublished report, Archaeological Development Services Ellison, C. C. 1963 Some aspects of Navan history. Ríocht na Mídhe, 3, 1, 33-56. Moore, J. H. 1893-5 Notes on the Town of Navan. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 123, 55-63; vol. 124, 47-53; vol. 125, 155-62.