1997:594 - DUNCANNON FORT, Duncannon, Wexford

The area under investigation was the lower gun battery on the western side of the fort, which was constructed in the early 19th century. This consisted of a magazine and five gun embrasures enclosed by a parapet. Subsequent alterations to the site included the addition of a side-arms shed and, in the 20th century, the insertion of a blockhouse for electricity generators and a gun emplacement. A large amount of rubble was also pushed down the slope from a breach in the upper parapets. Two gun embrasures on the western side were demolished and the parapet was bricked up behind the blockhouse.

The aim of the excavation was to clear the rubble accruing from the 20th-century additions and to remove as much of the introduced fill as possible.

A team of volunteers removed sod and rubble over a large area. The base of the walls of the brick-built side-arms shed and a cobbled conduit/gully at its western wall were exposed. The side-arms shed is marked on a map of 1858 but it had subsequently been demolished, possibly to make room for the generator building. Sod was removed over the remainder of the area surrounding the magazine, revealing a surface of chippings/scree. On the southern perimeter the excavation exposed the banquette/firing step at the east and two complete gun emplacements with an intervening shell store/expense magazine. A small area at the partially surviving western gun embrasure was reduced in level to expose large unbonded stones which formed the foundation of the inner rail of the gun emplacement.

Laweesh No. 1, Dunmore East, Co. Waterford