Town defences

The National Monuments Service's description

The earliest reference to town walls in Buttevant is a murage grant of 1317 which allowed John de Barry to 'enclose it with walls' under his supervision (Barry 1899, 155; Thomas 1992, ii, 28); in 1375 mention is made of the town's 'North Gate' (Thomas, ibid.). Nothing appears to survive of the town's walls nor is their exact course known (ibid.), but they had 'a rectangular circuit enclosing an area somewhere between 5 and 15 hectares...the possible line suggested by two boundaries, parallel and 25m apart...possibly suggesting an inner and outer wall' (Zajac et al. 1995, 10; see map in Thomas, ibid.). Smith (1750, vol. 1, 313) (and followed by later writers) noted 'remains of a wall that surrounded the town; and they also shew [sic] the traces of an outward wall, which enclosed the other, and took up a considerable circuit of ground'. The 1842 OS 6-inch map does not show town walls. In summary, whilst a number of suggestions have been made, notably by Thomas (1992, ii, 27-9) and Cotter (2010, 4-18) suggesting particular lines of town wall, as yet no extant wall or fragment of wall in Buttevant has been accepted as a definite surviving section of the town wall. Indeed, the exact line of the town wall(s) has yet to be established. (Thomas 1992; Power et al. 2000, 595, no. 14632; Cotter 2010)

Revised by: Denis Power

Date of upload: 12 March 2013

References

Smith, C. 1750 (New Edition 1815) The ancient and present state of the County and City of Cork, 2 vols. Cork. Guy and Co. Ltd.

Thomas, A. 1992 The walled towns of Ireland, 2 vols. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Zajac, S., Cronin, J. and Kiely, J. 1995 Urban archaeological survey - county Cork (2 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Cotter, E. 2010 Archaeological and Environmental Heritage at Buttevant, Co. Cork, Unpublished report submitted to Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service, Department Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.

Power, D., Lane, S., Byrne, E., Egan, U. and Sleeman, M. 2000 Archaeological inventory of county Cork, vol. 4: North Cork, parts 1 and 2. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Barry, E. 1899 Barrymore. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 5, 77-92, 153-68.