County: Louth Site name: ARDEE CASTLE, Ardee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 11:1 Licence number: 97E0171
Author: Kieran Campbell, on behalf of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 696113m, N 790524m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.855275, -6.539064
Pre-development test excavations were carried out in the yard of Ardee Castle. The assessment was requested by Louth County Council in advance of a decision to grant planning permission for a single-storey extension to the building.
Ardee Castle, also known as The Courthouse, is a four-storey tower-house and is considered to be the largest surviving fortified medieval townhouse in Ireland. The original construction is generally assigned a 15th-century date. In the early 19th century the castle was adapted by the Grand Jury for use as a courthouse. A bridewell was erected on the east side of the yard at the rear of the castle in 1863.
The proposed new extension measures 10m by 11.6m and will occupy most of the open yard between the castle and the bridewell, leaving a yard area reduced to 3.25m by 11.6m. Four test-pits, each measuring 1m by 1.5m, were excavated by hand on 17–18 July 1997.
In two test-pits towards the eastern side of the development site medieval deposits were encountered at a depth of 0.35m, immediately below material of very recent date. Natural till lay within 0.45m of the surface in places, but a number of medieval cuts into the till extended to a maximum depth of 1.68m. The deposits contained within the cuts produced habitation refuse typical of urban sites, i.e. pottery sherds, animal, bird and fish bone, and organic waste at the deeper levels. The pottery evidence dates the bulk of the medieval activity recorded to the 13th–14th century, i.e. before the building of the present castle in the late 15th century. No meaningful interpretation of the features was possible owing to the small-scale nature of the investigation.
In the test-pits placed at the western side of the development site, 2–3m from the east wall of the castle, the deposits were of 18th- and 19th-century date, overlying natural till at an average depth of 1m.
The concrete raft foundation of the extension was redesigned to avoid disturbance of the archaeological material.
6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Drogheda, Co. Louth
