County: Dublin Site name: BREMORE CASTLE, Bremore
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0183
Author: D.L. Swan, Arch-Tech Ltd
Site type: House - fortified house
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 719476m, N 764507m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.616752, -6.194170
In compliance with Office of Public Works requirements, archaeological testing was carried out on the site at Bremore, during the latter part of August and early September 1995. In all, five test-trenches were manually dug under archaeological supervision to test the deposits within the three main compartments of the castle interior. In all cases these were dug to reveal the underlying natural deposits. The testing provided a picture of extreme disturbance at all levels for depths up to 0.65m or 0.7m in all areas. No consistent evidence for original floor levels was recovered although spreads of burnt material and charcoal were identified in a number of cases. A series of walls was revealed within the 'main hall', most of which were identified as later than the original construction phase and which were probably used to subdivide the interior area of this compartment.
Two well-constructed stone-built channels which appeared to form part of the original structure were revealed during subsequent monitoring. The larger of these was associated with the garderobe, and the second, which also probably functioned as a drainage channel, was on a much smaller scale. Apart from some bone and much shell, including large quantities of whelk and limpet, together with 17th- to early 20th-century pottery, no archaeological deposits or artefacts were identified. No pottery datable to a period earlier than the 17th century was recovered.
32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
