1996:144 - TEMPLEOGUE HOUSE, Templeogue, Dublin

In compliance with Office of Public Works requirements, archaeological testing was carried out on the site at Templeogue, the first phase of which has now been completed. In all, five test-trenches were manually dug under archaeological supervision, extending the full length and width of the undercroft. In all cases these were dug to reveal the underlying natural deposits.

An early layer of cobbling was revealed at a depth of between 0.35m and 0.45m below the present undercroft flooring. This extended over most of the area but had been cut through by a number of channels. The cobbling appeared to have been set directly into the underlying natural marl and was barely clear of the natural water-level. Thus it is suggested that these channels were associated with water drainage and that similar circumstances necessitated the raising of the original floor level to its more recent height.

A significant deposit of imported stoneware and a small amount of gravel-tempered ware dated this activity to the later sixteenth or early to mid-seventeenth century. A large quantity of broken wine bottles were also recovered, together with some fragments of table glassware. These are presently being analysed and should help in dating the various phases of activity on the site.

There was no evidence of pre-sixteenth-century occupation, and a cursory examination of the extant structural features appears to confirm the conclusion that this castle belongs to the later sixteenth or early seventeenth century. However, the greater part of the fabric of this structure appears to have survived and to have been incorporated into the subsequent Restoration/early Georgian and later Victorian phases of reconstruction.

32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2