County: Leitrim Site name: THE LODGE, Dromahaire Castle, Drumlease
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 94E0046
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 580455m, N 831106m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.228459, -8.299740
The village of Dromahaire is situated on the banks of the river Bonet on the main Sligo to Drumshanbo road. It was the chief seat of the O'Rourke, kings of Breffini, who played a pivotal role in the history of pre-Norman Ireland. The proposed development area was located at the extreme southern end of the village in the grounds of The Lodge. Here there are the remains of two separate monuments. The first, known as the Banquet Hall, is an ivy covered rectangular building and has associations with the original O'Rourke castle. The other is the impressive remains of the Villiers Plantation castle which was constructed in the early 17th century.
It is presumed that the plantation building was constructed on or close to the site of the original O'Rourke castle, therefore a series of test trenches were recommended running across the proposed development area which lay immediately to the east of the Plantation house. They were located so as to pick up the line of any substantial walls associated either with the outer defences of the Plantation house or the earlier O'Rourke castle.
Two trenches and one small ancillary cutting were machine excavated down to undisturbed boulder clay. The western trench was 38m long and slightly under 1m wide and was excavated to an average depth of 0.7m. Despite close examination of the sections and the base of the trench, nothing of archaeological interest was noted. The second trench was dug more or less perpendicular to the east-west line of The Lodge, and ran for a distance of 48m. It was machine excavated down to undisturbed natural. This trench picked up the line of a disused stone drain, the form of construction of which suggests that it was associated with the Villiers Plantation castle. It also uncovered evidence for a landscape feature known as a tree-ring, a feature probably built within the last two hundred years by the Fox-Lane family either to beautify the area or, more probably, as ground cover for the game birds which stocked the 25,000 acres of Co. Leitrim over which the family had shooting rights. Nothing else of archaeological interest was noted.
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