County: Dublin Site name: DRIMNAGH CASTLE, Drimnagh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 92E0114
Author: Clare Mullins
Site type: Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 711130m, N 731772m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.324534, -6.331819
The second season of excavations at Drimnagh Castle was carried out from 9th August to 28th August . The excavation was carried out in conjunction with and funded by Rathmichael Historical Society's summer school. This year the excavation trench was extended northwards towards the moat which surrounds the castle. The northernmost 3m was extended 2m eastwards, thus creating an L-shaped trench measuring 10m north-south, 2m east-west at the southern end and 4m east-west at the northern end.
Excavations in 1992 had revealed an old stony ground surface which appeared to date approximately to the turn of the century (Excavations 1992, 14). Removal of the base of this stony layer in 1993 produced a mixture of modern delph, three sherds of 17th-century sgraffito ware and some locally made ware of 13th-15th-century date. The total depth of the stony layer measured approximately 0.25m.
Directly under this stony horizon lay a layer of brown sod-like material. This layer was most clearly defined and of greatest depth on the east side of the trench. It was less concentrated on the west of the trench where it quickly peeled away to reveal the natural boulder clay. Removal of this sod-like material on the east revealed a similar but slightly stonier version of the same. The latter occupied a hollow in the boulder clay, the western edge of which ran north-south down the centre of the trench. The eastern extent of this hollow was lost under the eastern baulk. Towards the north this hollow formed a bottleneck before flaring out again on either side. Both these soddy layers produced exclusively Medieval pottery.
A roughly circular area of damp soil in the northern end of the above mentioned hollow proved to be the top of a funnel-shaped pit cut into the natural clay. This pit was approximately 1m in diameter at the top and 1m in depth. It was filled with stone. Included amongst the stony fill was a drilled roof slate and two sherds of 13th- to 15th-century pottery.
While these features were being examined, the level of the newly opened northern extension was reduced in spits. This area proved to be completely disturbed right down to the boulder clay at a depth of approximately 1m.
It is possible that the stone-filled pit acted as a soakage sump and that the stratigraphically associated hollow in the boulder clay functioned as a gully, draining water into the sump. On excavation, the top of the pit coincided with the present water table.
19 Monread Gardens, Naas, Co. Kildare
