The town walls of Cashel, County Tipperary were first built under a Charter of Murnage received from Edward II around 1319-24. Originally incorporating at least five gates and enclosing an area of some twenty-eight acres, a surprising extent of these mediaeval defences survive, not least around the boundary of the graveyard of St John’s Cathedral: this marks the south-east perimeter of the old town. Inserted into the walls are four thirteenth-century tomb slabs believed to represent Sir William Hackett, his wife and two other family members: these came from the site of the nearby Franciscan friary established c.1265 thanks to a bequest by Hackett and were later moved here for safe keeping.