town/city walls

Section of Anglo-Norman city wall, built c.1170. Rubble limestone, battered to base, buttresses to south elevation. Resting on clay bank below ground.

The Anglo-Normans took over the medieval city of Dublin in the early 1170s, and strengthened its defences by repairing the original wall and by constructing a new boundary to the south. This portion of wall dates from this later phase of refortification. This section originally extended to the western gate, known as Newgate. As a rare surviving above ground example of the medieval period, it is a highly significant structure as a reminder of the earlier history of the city, and provides an interesting focal point on the street.