The Toll House, a Gothic folly beside Thomond Bridge

The Toll House and Thomond Bridge seen from King John’s Castle in Limerick, both designed by the Pain brothers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; cick on image for full-screen view)

Patrick Comerford

The old toll house on the corner of Castle Street and Verdant Place, stands on the banks of the River Shannon, beside Thomond Bridge and facing the more majestic King John’s Castle.

With its lancet windows, turrets, exaggerated crenellations and parapets, and its gothic appearance, it looks like another part of the mediaeval heart of Limerick. But this not a mediaeval gothic castle. Instead, it is a three-bay, two-storey limestone former toll house, built in the Gothic Revival style in limestone around 1840.

The mediaeval-like features include the pointed-arch door, the blind gun-loops on the front elevation and the south-west corner, and a carved limestone plaque bearing the city’s heraldic emblem of two towers.

The building has square-headed lancet windows with tooled chamfered limestone ashlar surrounds, flush sills, and replacement timber sash windows.

There is a square-plan tower at the south-east corner with a crenellated parapet rising from a parapet stringcourse with a machicolated balconette and machicolated square-plan turrets at the south-west and north-west corners. Above, the hipped roof behind the crenellated parapet wall dates from about 1990.

The Toll House looks like a Gothic folly (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The Toll House, which also looks like a folly, replaced an earlier toll house that stood on the same site. It was built to collect tolls entering the city from the Thomond or Co Clare side, west of the Shannon.

The building was a humorous exercise, designed by the brothers James and George Pain, the architects who also designed Thomond Bridge. Although it has a fortified defensive look, it brings together a functional use and the romantic ideas popularised by the 19th-century Gothic Revival movement.

The Toll House was restored in recent decades, retaining many of the original features, including the narrow slit windows and original rough stonewalls, It was on the market to rent as a one-bedroom house in 2012, with agents emphasising it combination of rustic charm and modern convenience and the picturesque views of the River Shannon.

The Pain brothers also designed Thomond Bridge at the same time.

The original Thomond Bridge was probably built between 1185 and 1210 to link the castle and King’s Island with the Thomond or Co Clare side of the River Shannon. This bridge collapsed in 1298, killing 80 people.

The bridge has been rebuilt several times over the centuries. It is said that this was the site of the oldest bridge in Limerick City, and was once the only bridge across the Shannon.

The bridge of the 18th and early 19th centuries had 14 unequal arches. The bridge is the scene for Limerick’s tales from the Bard of Thomond, including ‘The Bishop’s Lady,’ who, according to legend, would throw late-night walkers over the bridge into the river below. The bridge was sturdy, but was often flooded at high tide.

The bridge that stands today was built in 1838-1840 and was designed by the Pain Brothers, who also designed the County Courthouse, the Custom House and many churches and rectories throughout Co Limerick and Co Clare.

Thomond Bridge was designed by the Pain brothers and built in 1838-1840 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The ‘Fireplace Site’ is part of the ‘Mediaeval Mile’ in old Limerick

The ‘Fireplace Site’ on the corner of Nicholas Street and Saint Peter Street, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Nicholas Street is in the heart of mediaeval Limerick, with Saint Mary’s Cathedral, dating from the 12th century cathedral, at one end, and King John’s Castle, dating from the 13th century, at the other end. It is possible to walk from one to the other within a few minutes, as I did yesterday before the lunchtime Mozart concert in the cathedral.

Between both is a pub that claims to be the oldest in Europe, as well as remains of the city’s Exchange, one of Limerick’s historic almshouses, and the sites of mediaeval churches and townhouses. In any other European city, this quarter would be developed as a mediaeval showpiece, with its important architectural, archaeological and historic sites.

An example, within site of the cathedral, is the corner of Nicholas Street and Saint Peter’s Street, where Nos 36 and 37 Nicholas Street looks like a fenced-off derelict site, but contains the remains of a mediaeval house, including a beautiful medieval stone fireplace.

Despite its obvious archaeological importance and its tourism potential, there are regular calls to demolish the ‘Fireplace Site’ in the heart of the city’s oldest quarter of the city. The walls at the site were uncovered some years ago, and are part of a house dating back to late mediaeval times.

In mediaeval Limerick, Nicholas Street was the principal street in the heart of the walled city, and at the centre of civic life. The demolition of existing derelict buildings in the area in the 1990s revealed the stone party wall that contains the fireplace and stone corbels that are of archaeological and architectural interest.

The mediaeval fireplace on the first floor of the south wall on the ‘Fireplace Site’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

This wall is situated between what were probably two stone mediaeval houses that date back to the late mediaeval or early post-medieval era in the late 15th century.

On the north wall is a round-headed doorway with chamfered limestone jambs, while the south wall features the fine mediaeval fireplace on the first floor. The fireplace probably dates from the 15th century, and is decorated with incised relief and floral scrolls.

The excavation works also uncovered a mediaeval undercroft beneath the structure. The site also has remnants of the long narrow properties of mediaeval burgage plots that had an average width of five metres. Test trenching at the site revealed further underlying archaeological deposits and a cellar feature.

The works at the Nicholas Street ‘Fireplace Site’ include an intricate analysis by archaeological and conservation engineers, mortar testing to establish the correct mortar to be used in the works, and a detailed 3D-laser scan survey.

A protective canopy was placed around the entire structure to shield it from the weather as expert stonemasons began the intricate and delicate work of restoring the fireplace and the surrounding structure.

The north wall on the ‘Fireplace Site’ with a round-headed doorway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Maria Donoghue, the executive architect with Limerick City and County Council, told local newspapers earlier this year: ‘Heritage and culture have the potential to be a catalyst for economic and social regeneration in the form of heritage tourism and long-term community engagement with their rich history.’

She added: ‘Given the close proximity of Nicholas Street to King John’s Castle, with visitor numbers at more than 100,000 annually, we will develop the area in a balanced and considered way that works to preserve the archaeological remains of King’s Island’s while simultaneously supporting urban revitalisation needed for the present.’

The south wall, including the mediaeval fireplace, on the ‘Fireplace Site’ on Nicholas Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)