City Wall — Boherclogh,cashel,green,hughes'-Lot East,ladyswell,loughnafina,moor,st. Dominicks Abbey,st. Francisabbey,st. Patricksrock

The outline of the town wall of Cashel has been described as an irregular heart-shaped area, the circumference of which is a little over a mile in length enclosing approximately 28 acres. The unusual complexity of its shape has been attributed to the need to accommodate the lands of the pre-existing Franciscan (TS061-025008-) and Dominican (TS061-025007-) friaries. The promotion of Cashel to the status of a borough is attributed to Archbishop Donat O'Lonargan (1216-1223) who apparently gave burgage tenements to the burgesses, reserving to the see a yearly rent of twelve pence out of each burgage (Finn 1930, 5). About fourteen years later Archbishop Marianus O'Brien (1224-1238) issued a charter to the reeve and 12 burgesses (Chart. privil. immun., ed. 1889, 21). There is evidence to suggest that Cashel received a murage grant for four years in 1303 (Thomas 1992, 47). An additional grant for five years was furnished on 30th February 1319 (ibid.). It has been suggested that the new town had reached the extent delimited by the town wall before c. 1265 (Bradley 1985, 45). On 20th July 1378 Cashel was exempted from paying murage at Clonmel, most likely because this toll was already being collected within Cashel. The records of Cashel Corporation between 1673 and 1773 mention at least five gates - Moor or Our Lady's gate to the N; the E gate variously called Canopy Gate, Upper Gate and Dublin Gate; St. John's and Friar Gate to the S; and the W gate variously called West Gate, Lower Gate and St. Nicholas' Gate (Thomas 1992, 47). In 1677 fortifications which had been erected in the area of Canopy Gate during Inchiquin's seige were deemed dangerous '...and a great impediment to the passage through the said gate for coaches, wagons and all sorts of carriages'. Another reference from the Corporation Book for the same year notes that gates have to be repaired and recommends that a 'little tottering tower in the south corner of St. John's churchyard, being ready to fall, be pulled down...and the corner...be firmly built up with lime and stone, suitable to the rest of the city wall'. In 1702 the inhabitants of the suburbs without Canopy gate were granted permission to block up the said gate and create a new one -'provided that the new and enlarged passage be secured with 'stone and good mortar' and in 1732 it was decided to take down Lower Gate on the W side of the town as it was apparently dangerous to passengers. By the late 18th century the same records tell us that the walls and gates were long since fallen into decay. Although its line can be traced through the use of 1st and 2nd ed. OS 6-inch maps and to a large extent follows the townland boundary, only ten fragmentary lengths including the NW, SW and SE corners, in varying condition, are now extant, and none of the gates mentioned in the Corporation records survive. The wall (max. H 6.4m; max. T 3m) is composed of roughly coursed limestone rubble, with occasional sandstone. Gregory's (2000, 286) excavation of the town wall revealed how the wall was constructed with mortar-bonded, dressed, inner and outer faces with a central fill of small stones and mortar. The wall has a pronounced base-batter (H 2.9m; Wth 0.3m) and there is evidence of a wall-walk at the SW angle. The best preserved continuous portion of the wall is in the southern sector, particularly the SW angle and its extension eastwards to St. John's C of I graveyard (TS061-025035-), the boundary of which is co-terminous with the town wall. In the NW sector there is a well-preserved sally port or postern gate in the thickness of the base-batter. It comprises a spilt-level round-headed arched passage (H 2m; D 3.1m; Wth 2.25m). The inner and outer arches of the postern are faced with cut wedge-shaped limestone voussoirs. The soffit of the lower inner arch bears impressions of plank centering while the slightly higher outer arch soffit reveals remains of wicker-centering. Another sallyport with 'gothic mouldings' is believed to have existed in the SW corner of the town wall (Wyse-Jackson 1949, 24), in the stretch of wall which is visible externally in the Hospital grounds, though no evidence of this is now visible. There is a mural tower at the NW angle and another was located at the SE angle (Gregory 2004, 474). A number of archaeological excavations have revealed that there was a town fosse (Wth 3.6m-c. 6m; D 0.9-4m) running parallel to sections of the town wall (O'Donovan 1997, 100; Gregory 2000, 286). An excavation N of the hospital grounds revealed a large intramural fosse (L c. 18m; Wth 2.5-3.2m; D c. 1.1m) which ran roughly parallel to the town wall, 5-6m from it (O'Donnell 2004, 475). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011