The excavation of the main street of Ardee for the laying of the new water supply mains exposed what appear to be the foundations of two ancient public buildings.

A block of masonry and an arch, found about 2 feet under the surface at the farther end of Irish Street, the end of the town on the north, is probably the foundation of the pier of the Town Gate, which is marked at exactly this spot, on the west side of the street, on Richardson's map of 1677, as " North Gate."

There were four or five gates on the town north of the river - this North Gate, Head Gate at the Square, Cappock's Gate, Ash Walk Gate, and perhaps Blind Gate, and apparently a gate or else some military defence work must have barred entrance from the south at the bridge.

The town walled in by the Norman settlers extended, on the north, only to the north end of Market Street, where is now the Market Square, and a gate, named in the 1677 map " Head Gate," stood across the street more or less in a line with the south wall of Mr. Finegan's house. The town wall ran from this west to the wall of Ardee House demesne, which is on the site of the west town wall, and east along Market House or Rogan's Lane, to turn south at the Black Ridge to the River Dee.