County: Galway Site name: GALWAY: Barrack Lane, Townparks
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Miriam Clyne
Site type: Bastion and Barracks
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 522967m, N 725329m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.269720, -9.061667
The excavation, of three weeks' duration, was carried out in March and April 1989. It was funded by the owner of the site. The rectangular area, 23m x 13m, due for redevelopment determined the extent of the excavation site. Seven areas were explored and were dug until natural boulder clay or bedrock was exposed. These areas coincided with the proposed trenches to be dug for building foundations on the development plan.
In three of the areas opened, the south-west bastion of the east citadel erected by the Cromwellian forces in 1652, shortly after the town had capitulated, was revealed. It was one of two similar citadels built inside the town to defend the main east and west gates, and continued in use as a fortification up to, and for some time after, a military barracks was built around it in 1734.
The south and east walls and foundations of the bastion, including a salient angle, were partially exposed. These were built of rough mortared limestone and granite masonry and at the salient angle there were ashlar blocks. Three to five courses were extant, and the height ranged from 0.3m to 1.3m. The bastion was built mainly on natural clays.
Inside the bastion, a clay layer pre-dating the construction of the citadel contained late medieval potsherds. Outside the east wall, there was a considerable quantity of finds dating to the late 17th and 18th centuries. These consisted mainly of imported and local pottery, clay pipe fragments and glass.
Abutting the east face of the bastion, part of a foundation of a later building was revealed, which is shown on the mid-19th-century barracks plan as the forge. A date for its constructions in the latter part of the 18th or first half of the 19th century is likely.
The remainder of the excavation site, south of the bastion, was the parade ground in the military barracks. Four small areas were excavated here. There was no evidence for structures. A few fragments of 18th-century glass were found in the south-west of the site.
Templemartin, Craughwell, Co. Galway
