1971:050 - GREENCASTLE, Down

Examination of the eastern defences of the castle commenced in 1970 finished in April 1971. Excavation of the ditch on the east side of the castle was completed (to the limits of the area at present in State care) and the ends of the cutting consolidated and grassed over. Before excavation only slight traces of the ditch showed but now a 43m length of the rock-cut defence, 3.6-4.5m deep and 6.7m wide have been exposed and presented. The ditch runs parallel to the line of the east curtain (now partially reconstructed to ground level) with a massive outer bank sloping away to the east.

The stratification of deposits in the ditch was remarkably consistent over the length examined. Immediately after it was cut (presumably) skillet and rock chips, probably slip from the bank, accumulated in crevices in the ditch bottom. On top of this silt masses of mortared masonry, much broken up (but with identifiable pieces of curtain wall, merlons, coping and wall-walk surviving) had been deposited. This material would seem to be derived from the east curtain. Trail cuttings previously made on the north and south also demonstrated the presence of rubble and it was concluded that the castle had been slighted a short time after its construction, Apparently the castle was built some time prior to 1252 and entries in various annals, ultimately derived from “Pembridge” record that in 1260 “Castrum Viride in Ultonia prosternitur”.

The excavations revealed the edge of a feature cut vertically to a depth of almost 3m to the east of the ditch and sealed by the bank. This could best be interpreted as the inner edge of a supplementary quarry. Its partially back-filled bottom had been used for some industrial purpose. This level in the feature produced much slag and heat-reddened stones, a small round-ended hammer head, a sheet of bronze with bifurcated rivets, the bottom half of a glazed jug and part of a very small hand-made cooking-pot. The make-up of the bank included a quantity of scattered sherds of 13th-century pottery. Presumably all this material is to be associated with the constructional phase of the castle.

The rubble in the ditch was, covered by stratified rubbish deposits up to 2.5m deep. In all only 8 sherds of glazed English-type pottery were recovered from this vast dump of soil. On the other hand many sherds representing perhaps 30 handmade native-style ‘everted rim cooking pots’ were found. Most of these bear various patterns of incised and stamped decoration closely comparable with that on the ‘crannog ware’ series of the West. Indeed two sherds have plain handles springing from the everted rim, a characteristic of the latter type. The stratification was difficult to establish towards the south end of the cutting because here the ditch was almost full of rubble with a jagged and very uneven upper surface. To the north the quantity of rubble decreased with the result that there was a greater depth of more definable superimposed layers. The layer immediately overlying the rubble produced almost 200 iron objects including 30 knives (several with intact wood and bone handles), 4 barrel padlock keys, a buckle, a belt-slider, pins, needles, gouges, sickles, bucket-fittings, nails etc. and many other iron objects. Generally this material could not be out of context in the late 13th or 14th centuries. A single sherd from a “Merida Ware” cup came from a layer 1.2m above that which produced the iron objects this again may be a stray incorporated in a later rubbish deposit. Everted rim pottery of many different shapes and designs was recovered from all the layers overlying the rubble, including even the recently disturbed topsoil, which also produced a fine decorated bronze rowel-spur of Irish type perhaps dating to the early 16th century. The only coin found was a penny of Elizabeth, 1601. This came high up from a robber-trench partly cut through the upper layers of ditch fill in order to remove the foundations of the east curtain.