Town defences in Waterford City

Inventory entry: 1545 (SMR: WA009-005002-) From Reginald's Tower (WA009-00501-) to St Martin's Gate (WA009-00503-) there is an almost continuous section of wall (L c. 400m ) running W behind buildings on the Mall, perhaps incorporating the newel stairs of the Deanary undercroft (WA009-00540-) as a mural tower, in front of the Bishop's Palace and at the back of properties on the N side of Spring Garden Alley which itself may be on the outer edge of an accompanying fosse. The wall can be up to 4m high externally with perhaps a corresponding depth of stratigraphy on the N (city side). A gate at Colbeck St. and a mural tower between it and St Martin's Gate (WA009-00503-) are attested by cartographic sources. Excavation (04E1515) in 2004 by B. MacDomhnaill and C. Moloney recorded the basal levels of the W tower of Coldbeck Gate (WA009-005121-) (MacDomhnaill 2005), while excavation (96E0230) at Palace Lane revealed part of the city wall with an inserted entrance from a late cellar inside the wall. A stone-lined cess-pit was excavated and a revetting wall 2m outside the city wall built on the old marsh around the Pill (Scully 1997d). (Power 1943, 121-25) Inventory entry: 1546 (SMR: WA009-005003-) The town wall at this angle of the Viking town was built early in the 13th century and a gatehouse, known as St Martin's Gate, comprising two D-shaped towers (diam. 6m; surviving H 1.5m), was inserted into the wall shortly afterwards. The entrance passage (Wth 2.4m) was protected by a portcullis and the E tower was rebuilt in the 18th century when the gatehouse was incorporated into a large house (Moore 1983). Excavation E0260) within the confines of the wall by Michael Moore in 1983 exposed a pre-Anglo-Norman ditch extending N-S, which was c. 20m further W than that excavated at Bakehouse Lane (WA009-005006-) and probably unrelated to it. A roadway contemporary with the gatehouse and a small 13th-century house with a stone-footing were also recorded. The roadway, which had been damaged by pits in the 14th century and badly repaired, had gone out of use by the later medieval period. (Youngs et al. 1984, 257-8) Inventory entry: 1547 (SMR: WA009-005004-) From St. Martin's Gate (WA009-005003-) the town wall extends N to the River Suir at the site of Turgesius' Tower, which is known only from 17th century maps (Phillips 1680; Goubet 1695). There were gates at Lady Lane and Blackfriars St., called Lady Gate and Arundel Gate respectively. The earliest reference to Lady Gate is in the mid-17th century when repairs were carried out and it may have been demolished by 1800. Arundel Gatehouse is attested from 13th century sources and it functioned as a document store for the city. It may have been the only gate at the W side of the city in the medieval period. In the 17th century it was used as an arms store and in 1696 it was demolished to make way for a courthouse. A third gate attested by cartographic sources was possibly located on Peter St. The foundations of a short section of the town wall (Wth 2.4m) was excavated at Lady Lane (Moore 1983), and at Arundel Sq. (97E0137) by S. McCutchen (1998) and K. Nichols (98E0091) (2000) where it was built on an earthen bank. Remains of the 12th or 13th century defensive bank and its ditch were uncovered in further test trenches by J. Moran (99E0004) (2000a), and D. Pollock (05E1185) (2009d). By the 17th century the fosse was completely back-filled, and in 1698 permission was granted to remove the remains of Lady's Gate. The foundations of the N tower of this gate were discovered (00E0276) during 2000 to 2002 by J. Wren, and are now preserved under the Library on Lady Lane (Wren 2002a, 431-2; 2003a, 391-2; 2004, 496). (Power 1943, 135-6.Bradley et al. 1989, vol. 2, 203-5) Inventory entry: 1548 (SMR: WA009-005005-) The wall between Reginald's Tower (WA009-00501-) and site of Turgesius' Tower (WA009-00504-), fronting onto the river Suir, could have been amongst the last sections of wall erected. It was provided with five gates giving access originally to a wooden waterfront, but by the 17th century there were stone piers extending out into river. This section of wall also had a strong rectangular tower, later called Keyser's Castle, where Post Office now is. Sections of this wall have been exposed in excavation by S. Stevens (1985) and C. Sheehan (1994). (Power 1943, 135) Inventory entry: 1549 (SMR: WA009-005006-) Excavations by A. Hayden during 1987-8 at Lady Lane/Bakehouse Lane in the area between Lady Lane and Peter St. uncovered a N-S ditch (Wth 8.5m; D 1.65-2m; total excavated L 35m) with a rounded base (Wth 2.4m) (Hayden 1988; 1989). The fill of the ditch consisted of fine silts beneath organic material which was covered by redeposited bank material. It was accompanied by an earthen bank (original Wth 10.5m; surviving H 1.6-1.8m) on its E or inner side. There were at least two drains through the bank which was originally unrevetted but beams in the fill of the ditch probably represent a palisade from the top of the bank. The W edge of the bank was cut back (Wth 2.8-3.5m) and revetted with a stone wall (Wth c. 1.7m; max survivng H c. 1.6m; total excavated L 22m) with a batter on the W side. The W face of a gateway (Wth 1.72m; max. surviving H 1m) with dressed quoins was exposed on the S side of Peter St., probably on the site of an opening in the original bank. A metalled surface (Wth 4-4.5m) with an oak beam border was laid over the ditch fill immediately outside the wall. The construction of the wall dates to the second quarter of the 12th century. By the mid to late 12th century houses had been built outside the wall, by which time this wall had been superseeded by the wall (WA009-00505-) from St Martin's Gate to the site of Turgesius' Tower. (Youngs et al. 1988, 299; Hurley 1997) Inventory entry: 1550 (SMR: WA009-005007-) The wall around the W suburbs began with a gateway at the bottom of Barronstrand St. close to Turgesius's Tower (WA009-00504-), curved W to the Beach Tower (009-00508-) and on to the site of Patrick's Gate at Patrick St. The gate at Barronstrand St is attested by 15th-century documents, and maps by Ryland (1673) and Phillips (1685) depict a simple arched opening in the town wall (Bradley et al. 1988, 226). Patrick's Gate was an elaborate structure according to cartographic sources, and was one of the main gates of the city in the medieval period. (ibid. 221) A section of wall survives N of St Patrick's graveyard (L c. 50m) with at least 3 relieving arches, although the portion within the graveyard with two blocked arches probably relates to St Patricks fort (009-0548-) outside the walls. Apart from the Beach Tower (WA009-00508-) three other possible towers are known to have existed in this section of the town wall from documentary sources. (Power 1943, 133-35.) Inventory entry: 1551 (SMR: WA009-005008-) The Beach Tower: Rectangular two-storey tower with a reconstructed parapet and a slight wall-batter. It is called the Beach Tower (dims. of second floor 5.5m NW-SE; 4.95m NE-SW) and may be the 'Baker's Tower' mentioned in 1482 (MacNiocaill 1966, 142). It is perched on a cliff-face (H 5.75m at SW; H 14.7m at NW), the original doorway (now blocked) is towards the W end of the SW wall at second-floor level. A lintelled doorway from the lobby leads to a chamber under a NE-SW barrel vault. The first floor was supported on corbels in the NE and SW walls, and the original lights in the NE and SE walls were altered, that in the SW wall is the present entrance. From the lobby mural stairs in the NW wall rise to the rounded N angle of the tower where there is a large cross loop. From here the stairs rise in the NE wall to the re-built parapet which has a reconstructed look-out over the NW wall. Access to the first and ground floors was probably by stairs and trapdoors in the wooden floors. The first floor also has a blocked recess in the SW wall and an arrow loop in the NW wall. The ground floor has a stirrup