Town defences

The National Monuments Service's description

The N section of 'King William's Rampart' forms a boundary wall to the present Vicarage garden and the S boundary of the car park. It runs in a NE-SW direction (L 80m, Wth 3.5-6m, H 1.5-3.5m). Both faces are revetted with stone walling. In the W end of the rampart is a vaulted chamber entered from a round-arched opening. The vault runs N-S (dims. L 3.7m, Wth 3.6m, H 2m. ). It is lit by slit opes. Between 1986 and 1994 excavations in the immediate vicinity of the site produced 13th-15th-century pottery and evidence for an E extension to the rampart (Cotter 1992, 16). This site may be interpreted as fortifications erected by the Duke of Ormonde in 1649 (Anon 1897, 452; Joyce 1912, 270-1).

This S portion of 'King William's Rampart' lies S of Cappagh Road. A lane runs along the S face of the earthwork. It comprises a continuous section of flat-topped bank which takes a sharp bend (H 3m, Wth 3.2m, L 48m. ). The S face was formerly faced by a buttressed wall (Joyce 1902, 270). It is overgrown with ash and thorn. Traditionally associated with King William, who is said to have camped in Finglas after the Battle of the Boyne, 1690, (Anon 1897, 452). Investigations by OPW of the site uncovered 15th-century pottery which suggests that the ramparts may be the remains of a stockade built to protect the manorial estate founded by Archbishop Comyn in 1181. Test excavations in 1995 confirmed that the rampart continued along the N perimeter of the present site. Archaeological deposits with a date range of 14th-17th centuries were built up around it (Halpin 1995, 25).

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout

Date of upload: 26 August 2011

References

Joyce, P.W. 1902 Irish local names explained. Dublin. M.H. Gill and Son.

Joyce, W. St. John, 1912 (1988 ed.) Neighbourhood of Dublin. Monkstown.

Halpin, E. 1995 'Ardcarna', Ardcarn. Close to monastic enclosure. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1994: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 67-8, No. 192. Bray. Wordwell.

Cotter, C. 1992 King Willaim Rampart Finglas West. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1991: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 16. Bray. Wordwell.

Anon. 1897b Proceedings. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 27, 446-60.