1995:030 - KILCOLMAN CASTLE, Kilcolman Middle, Cork

Archaeological fieldwork at Kilcolman Castle, near Buttevant, entered its third season as excavation took place between 10 July and 5 August 1995. Its goal is to locate and examine the house of Edmund Spenser at the castle site. The project is funded by Mercer University and by the Earthwatch Foundation for Field Research, of Boston, USA, whose volunteer members comprise the project's non-professional workforce.

The standing remains of Kilcolman Castle comprise the vault and partial second storey of a 15th-century tower house with two masonry 'stumps' south and east along the line of the south outer wall. In the 17th and 18th centuries the castle walls were a source of masonry for the locality, and in the early 19th century lime kilns stood north and south of the hill, no doubt further reducing the structural evidence for Spenser's home. The 1994 excavations (Excavations 1994, 12–14) found traces of extensive stone-robbing activities at the south-east corner-heaps of rubble beside walls that had their facing stones removed.

Because the 1994 season had revealed architectural and stratigraphic details along the south side of the castle but had not examined the rest of the site, it was decided to determine the extent and nature of the outer (bawn or bailey) walls in the first half of the 1995 season. Three landscape features at the crest of Kilcolman Hill required investigation: 27m north of the tower house was a right-angled slope; 33m east of that angle was a noticeable mound near the corner of the modern field wall; and 10m north of these two features was a low bank, with a possible ditch. The right-angled earthwork was first observed during a preliminary site survey in 1990, and was then considered a possible location for the 'stone house' Spenser had built on the site of the decayed Irish castle. Alternative explanations were that it represented the north-west corner of the castle bawn wall or that it marked a medieval or modern agricultural enclosure or minor quarrying activity (major quarries exist on the north side of Kilcolman Hill, and topographical features west of the castle could result from quarrying).

Two trenches cross-sectioning the right-angle feature revealed a mixed clay deposit that filled depressions in the limestone, perhaps representing a levelling-up of the ground surface for wall construction. North-south shallow cuttings were discovered on its surface. They match the dimensions of the wall remains found to the east and should be evidence for the west bawn wall. Excavation of the bank and ditch north of the site revealed only bedrock, no clay deposit, and these features seem to have had an agricultural function, most probably a post-medieval 'quickset' hedge enclosure. Excavation of the mound north-east of the castle ruins found that a broad area of flat limestone, flanked by apparently natural crevices, sloped away sharply eastward under modern fills and cuttings, while the lesser slope to its west was filled with a mixed clay deposit similar to that observed previously. A 1.85m-wide wall was found under the mound. This wall fragment, only 0.3m high, sat directly on the ground surface, with no apparent foundation trench. Nevertheless, the similarities of dimensions and slightness of construction help identify the features in the western trench and also explain why so little evidence survives from the castle's outer wall. The strong slope east to Area G (see plan), marking the edge of Kilcolman Hill, defines the line of the east bawn wall, which must have run from the south-east turret to join the surviving wall fragment. The bawn defences measured approx. 45m north-south by 40m east-west.

A modern cutting along the slope defining the east edge of the site probably destroyed the east bawn wall at this point. Earlier clearance cut through an east-west wall, and this wall was again located and its north face fully exposed, descending vertically for 1.1m. It lay at right angles to the presumed east bawn wall line and comprised a 0.95m-wide rough limestone masonry, bonded with mortar, that had been rebuilt without mortar, probably with a clay bonding which has since leached out by natural processes. It seems likely that it was part of some service building such as a kitchen for the hall that would have stood near the tower house.

The 17th-century building found in 1994 in Area B was removed, as was a thick layer of mixed clays which appeared to have served as a foundation level and contained fragments of tobacco pipes dating to the first quarter of the 17th century and the base of a Rhenish stoneware drinking pot. This clay deposit sealed destruction rubble, at the base of which were found elements of the castle from the Spenser period: the chamfered edge of a stone window, with a 'mortice' hole for an iron mullion; charred timbers apparently in situ that may represent flooring; and most unusual of all, a 0.3m-high surviving plaster wall face. The plaster has shown no signs of painted decoration. The plastered wall was clay-bonded and added onto the mortared medieval walls in a renewal scheme that erected a structure probably measuring 10m by 6.5m. The high quality of its treatment and its location between the medieval tower house and probable hall site suggest that this room, destroyed c. 1600, served as a 'parlour', an essential element of the Elizabethan gentleman's home.

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