County: Dublin Site name: DUNDRUM CASTLE, Dundrum
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Elizabeth O'Brien
Site type: Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 717325m, N 727927m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.288657, -6.240300
A fourth season of excavation (funded and serviced by Rathmichael Historical Society) took place during July 1990. It has now been ascertained that the earth cut moat or fosse (13th century) on the north side of the castle was originally 4.5m deep and 7m wide, narrowing to 3m at the entrance area to the drawbridge.
The lower part of the north wall, built against the inner side of the fosse, has a base-batter 2.8m high and extending 0.77m beyond the wall face at the base. Towards the eastern end of the wall, a short tunnel was uncovered at the base of the wall batter opening into the base of a vertical shaft in the wall. Pieces of oak timbers with traces of mortar adhering (centering for the arch) were recovered from the silt in the tunnel which formed part of a water channel used for clearing the base of a garderobe. In the opposite wall of the (garderobe) shaft there is an opening to a further, blocked up, tunnel. It has also now been revealed that the late 16th-century tower was built over comparatively undisturbed 13th/14th century moat fill, using the corner of the drawbridge pier as a keying point. A further season of excavation will take place in July 1991.
121 Barton Road East, Dundrum, Dublin 14
