County: Donegal Site name: GREENCASTLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 22:03 Licence number: 96E0051
Author: Ruairí Ó Baoill and Eoin Halpin, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle and Bawn
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 665237m, N 940282m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.205458, -6.975117
Archaeological Development Services Ltd undertook three phases of work in 1996 close to the fourteenth-century castle at Greencastle, Co. Donegal. This work was carried out in advance of a proposed chalet development and comprised (i) an archaeological site assessment, (ii) an excavation, and (iii) a watching brief.
The site assessment
The site assessment was carried out in March 1996 and took the form of nine long, narrow trenches located north and west of the castle. These were excavated both by machine and by hand, down either to the depth of proposed disturbance, undisturbed natural or archaeological layers, whichever was most appropriate. Only Trenches 3 and 7 produced significant archaeology.
Trench 3, approximately 15m north-west of the castle, yielded a layer of cobbles and medieval pottery, possibly representing a formalised routeway into the castle. The findings from this trench suggest that the castle gatehouse was approached from the north.
Trench 7, approximately 50m west of the castle, had evidence of a disturbed linear feature cut into the subsoil.
It was the recommendation of the assessment, in consultation with the OPW, that development in the area of Trench 3, close to the castle, be rerouted to avoid ground disturbance, and that the area of Trench 7, further away, be archaeologically tested prior to the chalet development proceeding.
The excavation
The excavation around what had been Trench 7 took place during April/ May 1996. An area of roughly 150m2 was investigated. The linear feature encountered during the site assessment turned out to be the remains of a medieval ditch, which survived in a severely truncated and disturbed condition.
The ditch was tracked for a distance of 10m, running north-east/south-west across the site. It had a maximum width of 8.4m across the top and 7.2m across the base. Within the ditch, undisturbed stratigraphy survived to a maximum depth of 0.74m. The ditch cut survived most completely to the north-west, but no evidence of an internal bank or associated features survived modern damage. The ditch fills were mostly silty organic gravels, out of which were recovered sherds of both glazed and unglazed, locally produced medieval pottery, along with fragments of tile, iron, worked stone and slag. These probably date to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries AD.
How the ditch relates to the castle is as yet unknown. It may be that the feature was constructed for protection while the castle was being erected. However, given the scale of the work, it seems likely that the ditch represents a hitherto unknown, but not unexpected, medieval outwork of the Greencastle complex. The size of the castle, the manpower required to construct a ditch of apparent magnitude, and the area available for utilization between the two all create the impression of a considerable level of affluence.
The watching brief
During October 1996, a watching brief was maintained during the machine-excavated digging of the chalet foundations, west of the castle. No in situ archaeological features were noted and there was much evidence of twentieth-century disturbance of deposits in the form of service cables running north-west/south-east from the old access into the property, on the Greencastle Road, down to the buildings close to the castle.
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