1994:017 - GRAGAN CASTLE, Gragan West, Clare

This report was compiled in advance of the construction of a private dwelling and the restoration of a medieval tower house. It reports on the first phase of development which includes the interior of the bawn immediately west and east of the tower house and the location of the gable of a house ruin within the bawn. The second phase of development consists of the excavation of the second floor of the tower house prior to conservation.

The site is situated across the road and west of Gragan House Hotel just before the foot of Corkscrew Hill in the Burren. It is accessed by a gate which leads to a rough gravel boreen winding up a slope to a level section surrounded by trees. The site is located at the end of the boreen to the north-west. Access is through a gap in the south wall from the boreen.

The site consists of a roughly rectangular bawn with a tower house situated at its north end. The north gable of a hall stands to the west of the tower and is also incorporated into the north bawn wall. The area is badly overgrown with ash and numerous stumps of cut trees can be seen.

The trial trenching started on September 27 and finished on October 1.

The site is aligned north-west to south-east but for the purpose of description north to south is used for convenience sake. It consists of a medieval tower house and the north gable of a hall set into the north wall of a bawn which surrounds an area measuring 29m north-south by 20.2m east-west. The tower house measures 12.8m north-south (including the buttress) by 7.25m east-west. It is three stories high and roofless. It has a doorway on its west wall leading to a double vaulted ground floor. Two small upper rooms within the vaults are evident. The third story is accessed by a stairs immediately to the left inside the door. There are two fireplaces, one on the ground floor in the first vault and the second on the third storey. Several different phases of alteration are indicated within its structure.

The area within the bawn was trial trenched in order to assess the extent of archaeological deposits. Five trial trenches were dug. Quantities of shell and bone were evident in all the trenches and a fragment of a 15th-century window, probably from another site, were found. The insubstantial remains of the south gable of the house were uncovered, comprising mainly loose stone and decayed mortar.

The stratigraphy of the area is disturbed to a large extent by tree roots which are present in all the trenches. Trench III along the outside of the west of the tower produced bedrock just under the surface. The proposed development consists of a raft foundation set 0.3m below the threshhold of the doorway. Levels taken around the site indicate that no archaeological layers will be disturbed by this proposal if properly adhered to.

The site seems to have been used up to recent times because of the presence of shell in the top-soil. However this could also be as a result of clearance or the shallow depth of soil in places. All the contexts had evidence of intrusion from tree root with large rocks and stones, probably debris from the house wall and gable. The hall is most likely later than the castle. It is curious however that the east end of the gable and the north end of the bawn are just short of each other forming an inverted right angle at the north-east corner. It would seem that a portion of the bawn was knocked prior to the construction of the house, or that it may have been built or perhaps rebuilt at the time of the house.

57 Upper Newcastle, Galway