1996:223 - ROCK OF DUNAMASE, Laois

The 1996 season, funded by the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, concentrated on the twelfth-century hall at the top of the site. Last year's exploratory trench was extended westwards to reveal the missing end wall and eastwards to the original door into the hall. The interior of the early thirteenth-century forebuilding and an area around the outside were also excavated.

Clearance of the rubble on the inside of the hall revealed no new architectural features within the building. The western wall of the building was uncovered, standing to a height of 1 m on the inside, but the outer face of the wall was destroyed to more or less the base of the wall. The building can now be shown to measure 35.5m by 20m externally, with an internal measurement for the hall of 21m by 14.4m. A significant conclusion of this season's work was that Sir John Parnell's attempts to refurbish the castle in the late eighteenth century affected the look of the castle much more than hitherto suspected, and may even have included some demolition work at the west end.

Excavation to the east of the porch revealed that there was a considerable build-up of material against both the hall and the porch walls, to create a smooth, easy access up to the late medieval door into the solar end of the hall. This door is a late addition by Parnell, taken from elsewhere, and incorporates parts of two different doors. The original ground level outside the door is c. 1.5m below threshold level, with both hall and porch built on the edge of rock outcrop. A barter had been added against the hall wall, east of its original main door, prior to the construction of the forebuilding. East of the fore-building this batter had been largely dismantled for the insertion of the late door. When viewed from the north-east in the thirteenth century, both the hall and forebuilding would have looked much taller and starker than at present.

Further analysis of the standing fabric has revealed the roofing arrangement for the hall. It is now clear that the north wall was raised to a level, and tie-beams were inserted across the hall. A wall-beam was then laid across these, or more probably jointed into them, and closely spaced rafters were added to the wall-beam. The wall was then raised a further metre or so through the skeleton of the roof to the current parapet level. Up to the time of writing it has not been possible to find a parallel for this type of roofing arrangement within Ireland. The span of the hall is such that it suggests at least one aisle, but no evidence for this was found in this season's work.

No pre-castle deposits were encountered this year, nor were there any finds which contradict the working theory that the castle was abandoned by the mid-fourteenth century, and was not reoccupied in any meaningful way until Sir John Parnell refurbished it.

Cragg, Birdhill, Co. Tipperary