1990:010 - BUNRATTY WEST, Clare

Trial trenching was carried out in the townland of Bunratty West in advance of seeking planning permission for the proposed development of a residential and commercial complex by Neveono Ltd who funded the excavation.

The site consisted of two blocks of land. Area (1) a C-shaped field stretching from the Limerick-Ennis road around the old parish church and Area (2), an oblong field of about 13.5 acres which includes a prominent ridge to the west of the parish church. The archaeological relevance of the site rests in the fact that it lies within the suggested area of the medieval borough of Bunratty.

Area 1.
Twenty-three cuttings were opened in Area 1 and these showed a habitation level right across the site. Features exposed included pits, a hearth, and walls together with pottery sherds of the 13th/14th centuries. These findings suggested that this level represents the remains of the medieval borough of Bunratty. The absence of pottery and other objects of later date together with the presence of a sod level above the habitation layer indicates that the settlement was deserted in the later Middle Ages. This supports the documentary evidence which suggests that Bunratty was abandoned shortly after the Battle of Dysert O'Dea 1318.

Area 2.
The prominent ridge to the west of the parish church fell within the line of the medieval defences as suggested by Westropp. Twenty-one cuttings were opened across the ridge but no evidence of pre-1700 activity was present. The medieval defences consisted of a bank and ditch which enclosed this ridge on the north and west. These are now only visible along the north side of the field and were not threatened by the development, but elsewhere they had been levelled. Six cuttings were made across the site of the defences on the west of the promontory. The ditch was found to be c. 8m in width and 1.5m deep. The fill, which consisted of fairly fresh sods and compacted boulder clay, would suggest that this material is to be identified as the bulldozed remains of the bank seen by Westropp in 1914. A bronze halfpenny of James II (1685-9), found embedded in the redeposited boulder clay within the ditch, indicates that the bank and ditch are older than c. 1690 but the absence of any medieval artefacts in the fill suggests that it is highly unlikely that it could have formed part of the medieval defences of the borough. In addition, the lack of any objects indicative of military activity renders the suggestion that it could have been built as part of the defences of Bunratty during the siege of 1642 as unlikely. The best interpretation is that the bank and ditch were built as a field enclosure in the late 17th century and that the area was levelled after 1914. Further excavation was recommended in Area 1.

Skidoo, Ballyboughal, Co. Dublin