County: Dublin Site name: DUNDRUM CASTLE, Dundrum
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 22:23 Licence number: 97E0110
Author: Edmond O'Donovan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 717325m, N 727827m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.287759, -6.240336
Archaeological test excavation was carried out on the lands to the north-west of Dundrum Castle. The castle was built in the 13th century and was remodelled in the late 16th/early 17th century. The site is located on the western side of a small river, on steep sloping ground, to the south-west of Dundrum village. The castle was excavated by Elizabeth O'Brien with the Rathmichael Historical Society over a five-year period in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Excavations 1987, 13–14; 1988, 14–15; 1989, 19; 1990, 25–6; 1991, 15–16).
Five test-trenches were excavated throughout the site. They varied in length between 3m and 28.5m and radiated out from the castle to define the extent of archaeological deposits and associated structures.
No significant archaeological soils, features or deposits were encountered during the test-trenching. A field boundary (ditch) was located in Trench 3. No date could be established for the feature. No trace of any external earthwork surrounding the castle or the Dún Drum was encountered in the test-trenches. However, archaeological monitoring of topsoil-stripping associated with ground preparation works was proposed.
Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
