Historic town

The National Monuments Service's description

The historic town of Caherconlish was described in the Urban Survey of County Limerick as following; "Caherconlish is located in east Limerick just off the Limerick to Clonmel road. The placename suggests that there was a pre-Norman settlement here but there is no actual documentary evidence for its existence. It is not until the coming of the Anglo-Normans that the settlement is first mentioned. It formed part of the lands of Owney which were granted to Theobald Walter, ancestor of the Butler family. It is fortunate, perhaps, that it was to the Butlers that Caherconlish belonged because as a result an informative extent of the manor, prepared in the year 1300, survives (White 1932, 154-8). This extent makes it clear that Caherconlish was a borough settlement at the heart of a manor on which free tenants, cotters and betaghs also lived. Unfortunately the extent provides no knowledge of the size of the settlement or its appearance but it is clear from a grant of murage in 1358 that Caherconlish was defended, probably by earthen ramparts (Ir Rec Comm 1829, 61). The settlement was exposed to attacks by the native Irish, particularly the O'Briens and the "Wars of Turlough" recount the capture and burning of the castle in the 1280s. The borough appears to have declined in the later middle ages and it seems to have been already deserted at the time of Dinely's visit in the 1680s. The medieval borough was probably centred on the present village which has an L-shaped pattern bounded by a small stream on the west called the Groodie. There are no pre-1700 houses in the town. There are records of four Castles in the town (Westropp 1906-7, 94), traces of which survived apparently until the early 19th century but these have also vanished. These appear to have been fortified town houses of the type which still survives at Fethard, Co. Tipperary, and at Ardee and Carlingford, in Co. Louth. The site of one castle is marked on the OS.map to the south-east of the churchyard but no remains survive there and another is marked on the O.S.map to the north of the village. Another castle may have been on the site of Caherconlish House (Lenihan 1866, 727). There are also references to a college (Lewis 1837, i, 239). The settlement recieved a murage grant in 1358 granting the "provost, bailliff and commonalty of the town of Catherkenlyshe" the right to collect murage for twenty years (Ir Rec Comm 1829, 61). A gatehouse is said to have survived until the early part of the 19th century (Westropp 1906-7, 93) but no trace of it survives today. The medieval defences probably consisted of earthen ramparts but their course remains unknown. Reports of stone axeheads, pottery, house foundations are said to have been found in College. Field to the west of the settlement (Lynch 1896, 357)." (Bradley et. al 1989, 88-93)

Compiled by: Denis Power

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 31 October 2018

References

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.

Lenihan, M. 1866 Limerick: its history and antiquities.

Westropp, T.J. 1906-7 The ancient castles of the county of Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 26, 54-264.

White, N.B. (ed.). 1932 The Red Book Of Ormond. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Lynch, J.F. 1896 Caherconlish. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 2, 307-316, 345-360, 385-392, 443-449 & 467-477

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H.A. 1989 Urban archaeological survey - county Limerick (3 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.