County: Dublin Site name: CLONTARF CASTLE, CLONTARF
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 7:00201 Licence number: 96E0212ext.
Author: Edmond O'Donovan, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd.
Site type: House - 16th/17th century
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 719354m, N 736449m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.364755, -6.206682
An archaeological excavation was carried out on the site of Clontarf Castle. The existing 19th-century buildings are listed in the Dublin Development Plan. Archaeological test excavation was carried out on the site prior to the excavation (Excavations 1996, 17–18).
Two separate cuttings were excavated to the rear and north of the main house. Cutting 1 was centred on Trench 26 of the earlier archaeological assessment. The cutting measured 10m north-south and 11m east-west. Cutting 2 was located immediately to the east and was divided into two areas. Area 1 measured 13m north-south and 13m east-west. Area 2 measured 3.5m north-south and 9m east-west. Prior to hand-excavation, c. 0.5–1m of the uppermost deposits of mixed rubble debris were mechanically removed. The distinct lack of datable finds proved problematic in dating the site.
The excavation uncovered a medieval wall extending north-south at the western end of the site. No other structures were identified associated with the wall and no buried soils or deposits were found to be associated with it. The wall is interpreted as an early boundary defining the western extent of the medieval complex.
An early cobbled surface (17th-century) was identified in both Cuttings 1 and 2. These surfaces were dated to the post-medieval period on the basis that the only associated deposits, albeit identified above the cobbling, consisted of post-medieval clays. These included a grey gravelly clay identified in Area 1, a cultivated soil identified in the eastern portion of Cutting 1, and a cultivated soil identified in the western portion of Cutting 2, all dating from the post-medieval period.
The walling recorded in Cutting 2 (Area 1) consisted of a series of post-medieval walls. The cutting was opened to examine the fabric of a large wall recorded in Trench 8 during the archaeological assessment. The wall had been identified as being potentially medieval in date; however, this proved not to be the case. The walls were later than and cut through the earlier 17th-century cobbling. The structures are most likely to be associated with outbuildings that originally formed part of the Tudor Revival mansion dated 1836–7.
The building identified in Cutting 2 (Area 2) was part of the rear range of buildings associated with the mansion. The excavation identified a platform. This formed the foundation on which steps led down and out of the building. The cultivated soils identified north of this strongly suggest that the steps led out into a garden which was likely to have been walled.
Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
