County: Cork Site name: DUNBOY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Dr. E M Fahy, Dept of Geography, University College, Cork
Site type: Castle - tower house and Bastioned fort
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 466479m, N 544069m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.633227, -9.928870
Work during August 1973 was concentrated on the site of the bawn wall and the entrance area of the C17th fort. Dumps of upcast accumulated in previous seasons were removed from the site.
The outer, original, curtain wall was located and traced for a distance of 75m on the south and 55m on the east. It was not located on the west, and had not been built on the north where the sea cliff, partly quarried to a steep face, had been considered adequate for defensive purposes. Much of the eastern wall had been destroyed, but the southern one where best preserved stood about 1m high and was 1.75m thick. Clearance of the entrance area of the C17th fort showed that it too had been destroyed.
The excavations, now concluded, revealed the following succession of events on the site:—
Phase I. Construction of the tower-house and outer bawn wall, probably in the C15th.
Phase II. A secondary curtain wall was built very close to the castle on the east lay across a large rock-cut water pond of Phase I. The pond continued in use and water could be drawn from it through a slab covered ope at the base of the secondary wall- evidently a precaution against siege conditions.
Phase Ill. Part of the secondary wall was demolished to ground level and was rebuilt.
Phase IV. Extensive spreads of rubble and some cannon shot attested the siege of 1602. One human bone was found.
Phase VI. A small, dry-stone look-out tower added to the fort.
Phase VII. Fort destroyed in mid C17th.
Phase VIII. Small stone hut built on fort rampart.
