St. John's Gate at Limerick
Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 2:43 am
Following Barry's excellent example on the blog, I am planning on building my own city walls and gate, but based on St. John's Gate at Limerick (and a portion of the city behind it for that matter) rather than Derry.
I realize no one knows for certain what the gates would have looked like. I just want to be able to argue my point - especially since I am going to be writing about this on the LoA blog.
In John Childs' book The Williamite Wars in Ireland, he goes into some great detail about the height of the walls and the construction of a ditch, counterscarp,covered way, and glacias (all of which I am familiar with). He mentions the construction of two demilunes, one of which was outside St John's Gate. I assume that is not the same bit as Yellow Fort as this place is described as a redoubt 'just to the right of St. John's Gate'. The walls would be the original castle walls. The only thing I am unsure of is this...
"De la Vigne demolished the antique citadel within St. John's Gate replacing it with an earthwork large enough to mount six heavy cannon."
So for game purposes, I would construct the thing large enough for two model guns, but I'm not sure what this earthwork would look like. Do you they should be triangular bastions like other 'modern' forts of the time? It says the 'citadel within' the gate was replaced and I'm not sure what to make of that. It sounds like the earthwork is connected to the old walls rather than outside them.
I have all of the references you can find on Google, not of which have given me the answers I am looking for, so I thought I would asked this esteemed community for information or even opinions. The gate will be one of the centerpieces of the display - if I have to just go with my best guess, I will, but I thought I'd ask here first.
Any help or ideas would be appreciated!
I realize no one knows for certain what the gates would have looked like. I just want to be able to argue my point - especially since I am going to be writing about this on the LoA blog.
In John Childs' book The Williamite Wars in Ireland, he goes into some great detail about the height of the walls and the construction of a ditch, counterscarp,covered way, and glacias (all of which I am familiar with). He mentions the construction of two demilunes, one of which was outside St John's Gate. I assume that is not the same bit as Yellow Fort as this place is described as a redoubt 'just to the right of St. John's Gate'. The walls would be the original castle walls. The only thing I am unsure of is this...
"De la Vigne demolished the antique citadel within St. John's Gate replacing it with an earthwork large enough to mount six heavy cannon."
So for game purposes, I would construct the thing large enough for two model guns, but I'm not sure what this earthwork would look like. Do you they should be triangular bastions like other 'modern' forts of the time? It says the 'citadel within' the gate was replaced and I'm not sure what to make of that. It sounds like the earthwork is connected to the old walls rather than outside them.
I have all of the references you can find on Google, not of which have given me the answers I am looking for, so I thought I would asked this esteemed community for information or even opinions. The gate will be one of the centerpieces of the display - if I have to just go with my best guess, I will, but I thought I'd ask here first.
Any help or ideas would be appreciated!
