County: Cork Site name: BARRYSCOURT CASTLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 75:1801 Licence number: —
Author: Olga Finch, Dept of Archaeology, University College, Cork
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 582177m, N 572522m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.904560, -8.259005
Barryscourt Castle was acquired by the Barryscourt Trust in 1987. Its aim is to conserve, enhance and develop the heritage potential of the castle. However, prior to any development and restoration, some parts of the castle were identified as areas which merited archaeological examination.
The excavation, which ran for 5 weeks from 4th May 1992, was funded by the Office of Public Works. Work was concentrated in the interior of the 16th-century tower house. Three areas were to be investigated, all at the Great Hall level.
Area 1
Excavation in Area 1 involved the clearance of deposits in the Great Hall which overlies a barrel vault, the main structural vault of the tower house. This replaced the original pointed vault which at some stage collapsed or was deliberately removed. Immediate remedial work was deemed necessary to secure the main vault which was porous and was allowing water to permeate through the vault, washing out the mortar.
Prior to excavation the apex of the vault was already exposed and vegetation had been removed by FÁS. The haunches were found to be filled with a very loose mixture of sand and limestone chippings. A series of lenses of burnt deposits were sealed between this gravel, containing considerable amounts of charred seeds etc.
Overlying the haunch fill, excavation revealed a number of deposits, some of them only a few cms thick. These deposits contained quantities of animal bone, charcoal and pottery including 17th-century German Stoneware. Three lead musket balls were also found. Overlying these deposits and particularly in the northern half of the Great Hall, excavation revealed a quite compact mottled clayey silt deposit. Found to be overlying the haunch gravel, it serves to level the floor in the Great Hall. Similar deposits were found to be partially denuded elsewhere in the hall. There was quite a considerable amount of modern disturbance throughout Area 1, in particular along the western wall.
Area 2
This involved the investigation of a blocked passage leading from a narrow mural stairway just south of the southern embrasure on the east wall. The stairway enters into the eastern half of a vaulted passage running north and originally thought to have been a passageway leading to the spiral staircase in the north-east corner of the Great Hall (Area 3). This however, was disproved. On excavation a back wall was discovered. It was established that Area 2 was in fact a separate chamber. Its eastern wall, with one slit window, is the side wall of the castle. The western wall is a rough irregular coursed mortared wall and post dates the construction of the chamber. It is associated with the construction of the main barrel vault. The collapse of the pointed vault and the construction of the barrel vault have influenced what remains of this chamber. It would originally have been wider using the area provided by the nature of a pointed vault. It is quite feasible that the chamber continued in use. The floor of the chamber, after the removal of deposits, was found to be rough and undulating and formed of stones bonded with mortar resulting from activities associated with the vault construction. The chamber was filled with a considerable amount of loose, wind-blown material and was of recent origin.
Area 3
In the north-east corner of the Great Hall is a breach of recent origin into a spiral staircase. The staircase rises by several steps up from the hall level and is now blocked off by a vertical wall. Downward, it accesses an arched passageway running southwards in the thickness of the eastern rower wall and originally thought to have led to Area 2. Before excavation it was largely filled and blocked by debris obscuring the lower steps. The fill was quite loose and contained modern glass, large stones, lumps of mortar and roofing slates. At the bottom of the stairway is a short passage leading into the chamber proper. As with Area 2, the springings for the replacement barrel vault appear to have been inserted into the western inner wall of the passage and chamber, blocking part of its width and leaving a rough unfinished edge to the wall and also altering the original floor level. The only ope lighting the chamber is in the east wall and is partly blocked by the infill and lies below the present floor level.
