1993:019 - RATHBARRY CASTLE, Castlefreke, Cork

This archaeological testing was carried out at Rathbarry Farmyard in Castlefreke, West Cork, between 3rd May and 7th May in advance of a proposed development at the site. The tower house at Rathbarry was originally built in the 15th century and was involved, among other episodes, in an eight month-long siege in 1642. When, in the 18th century, the landowner, Lord Carberry, built a new residence at Castlefreke nearby, the site was converted for use as a farmyard for the estate. The farmyard was built immediately north of the tower house around a square courtyard. This was enclosed on all sides by ranges of farm buildings.

What survives of the tower house is a ruined structure which has been much altered and rebuilt over the years. It is built directly on the bedrock, close to the highest point in the area. The bawn wall, which enclosed the site, is still visible to the south and west, where it now takes the form of a retaining wall several metres in height. This appears to be the result of a levelling-up of the area inside it when the farmyard was built. Only the southern and western range of farm buildings remain intact. Recently these buildings were renovated for a folk museum. They include a forge and a dairy.

The trenches were selected to test the stratigraphy in the area of proposed new buildings on the northern side of the farmyard. Two trenches were dug at right angles and intersecting. The first measured 31.35m long, 1.1m wide and ran in an east-north-east/west-south-west direction across the farmyard. The second was dug at right angles to the first, midway along Trench 1. It was 12.1m long and 1.1m wide.

The two trenches indicated an area of rock outcrop towards the middle of the courtyard, which fell away steeply to the east and west and not so dramatically to the north. Above it, at either extremity of Trench 1, was a series of layers of non-compact material. Some of the layers contained bone fragments, oyster and periwinkle shells and two sherds of post-medieval pottery. They have all the appearance of being dumped rather than having accumulated. In Trench 2 the rock was never more than 0.65m below the surface and above it again was fill-like material with a number of pottery sherds of modern and post-medieval date. At 7.8m along Trench 2, towards its northern extremity, a wall foundation was encountered. This would have been one of the foundation walls of the northern range of farm buildings. A cross wall of the outhouse was found to adjoin this wall at right angles. Beside the cross wall, another was found at 0.8m below ground level. When this wall was uncovered (the trench was widened to investigate further) it was found to be 1.36m wide and probably built on the rock below at 0.69m deep.

The fill was probably deposited here to make a level area when the farmyard was built. This would not have been as essential when the tower house was first built, as it probably stood on its own on top of the rock with a defensive wall enclosing an area around it. The older wall found at the northern end of Trench 2 could be part of the original curtain wall which surrounded the tower house. It certainly predates the outhouse walls in this area and is of a similarly massive construction to the walls of the tower house.

Churchtown, Carndonagh, Co. Donegal