1996:069 - CLONTARF CASTLE, Clontarf, Dublin

An archaeological assessment was carried out on the site of Clonrarf Castle to fulfil a condition of the planning permission for the scheme. The site is also listed in the Dublin Development Plan. The archaeological assessment was carried out in two phases between 26 August and 19 September 1996.

The original Clontarf Castle, erected by the Anglo Normans, was the residence of Alan de Phepoe, who granted it to the Knights Templar in 1179. The Templars fell out of favour with the king and were suppressed in 1312, and their possessions subsequently passed to the Knights Hospitaller. Following the acquisition of the castle by the Hospitallers the preceptory was leased out from the fifteenth century. It eventually fell into the hands of John Vernon, a quartermaster of Cromwell's army in Ireland in 16S0. The present castle, a Tudor Revival house designed by William Virruvius Morrison, was built in 1836-7, when the earlier buildings were demolished. It consists of a mock-Tudor building attached to two tall, older 'Norman'-style towers. Prior to Morrison's building, the site is likely to have consisted of elements of the original Templar castle, later medieval alterations, including changes made by the Hospitallers, and the seventeenth-century fortified residence of the Vernons.

The assessment sought to establish whether any remains of the original Clontarf Castle and the additional buildings built up to the seventeenth century survived. The buildings were thought to have been demolished by Virruvius Morrison when he built the present Gothic-style house.

A total of 28 test-pits and trenches were opened across the site in order to establish the nature of any pre-1700 buildings on the site. Trial-trenching revealed that the site had been substantially altered and that little of the original castle remained. No medieval horizons were identified in any of the trenches opened.

The original location of Clontarf Castle can be estimated from Rocque's map, and William Morrison's nineteenth-century building coincides with this location. Since the house is to be incorporated into the new development, the main focus of the early buildings are likely to remain undisturbed, if they survive. However, there is evidence that buildings extended to the north and east of the castle in the eighteenth century (Rocque's map, 1756). A possible bawn wall is also depicted by Rocque, with rounded corner turrets at its northern end. A possible 'ditch' located on Rocque's map crosses the footprint of the new building, but no traces of any defences or ditch were located in the four trenches opened in this area.

Three trenches revealed evidence for walls of post-medieval or later date. These foundations may relate to buildings indicated on Petrie's illustration of the castle in 1834. A large, wide wall uncovered in one trench was assumed to be medieval, although there were no associated medieval layers or structures against it or in nearby trenches. It was orientated north-south and extended under the existing building towards the towers of the Morrison building.

A series of east-west walls and contemporary clays were recorded in one trench. The outbuildings of Morrison's nineteenth-century house were located to the rear (north) and east, and it is possible that these walls may represent the foundations of the outbuildings. No archaeological features were recorded on the west of the building. A seventeenth-century pit located in one trench may have functioned as a cesspit or drain.

One upstanding castle wall survives within the fabric of the original building, measuring 6m in length and surviving to a height of 4.8m above present ground level. It is presently covered with plaster render and pre-dates the structures attached to and on top of it.

Further excavation of the site in the vicinity of the large wall uncovered in one trench and around the standing wall incorporated into the tower will be necessary as they appear to be original to the Templar and Hospitaller houses.

The remains of the original medieval church associated with the site were noted outside the development area. It survives within the fabric of the present eighteenth-century church lying to the east of the development site.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin