Located along the south bank of the Abbey River, just west of Broad Street, the site had already yielded results eight years earlier when Dr Ann Lynch uncovered the medieval town wall foundations and the twin towers of the West Watergate. What emerged from the seven-month excavation was a remarkably detailed picture of medieval Irishtown’s north-western corner, complete with the elusive castle they’d been searching for.

The dig revealed a community that had wrestled with the challenges of riverside living for centuries. Medieval settlers had attempted to build as close to the Abbey River as possible, though the dramatic drop in ground level and persistent flooding made this difficult. Their solution was ambitious; they brought in tonnes of gravel and clay to raise the ground level, creating stable foundations for their buildings. The excavation uncovered property boundaries marked by parallel walls, evidence of metalworking businesses along Broad Street, and what appeared to be a corn-drying kiln, all pointing to Irishtown’s role as the artisan quarter of medieval Limerick. Among the more personal finds was an intact leather shoe, preserved in the organic clay at the bottom of a large pit.

The star discovery was the square tower measuring roughly 6.7 by 6.3 metres, identified as the long-sought ‘Castle’. Its western wall, the best preserved section, featured faced stonework rising over a metre high from a foundation width of 1.3 metres, complete with a garderobe chute built into the north-west corner. This tower formed part of an elaborate defensive system that included not just the town wall and West Watergate, but also an inner gate tower and flanking walls along West Watergate Lane. Such substantial fortifications made sense given the location’s strategic importance; the West Watergate stood close to Baal’s Bridge, the sole connection between Irishtown and Englishtown on King’s Island. Though these medieval structures were demolished during Limerick’s 18th-century reconstruction, their foundations remained hidden beneath the modern city until Tarbett and Wiggins brought them back to light.