1997:603 - BALLYHIRE CASTLE, St Helens, Wexford

Archaeological test excavation and the survey of the remains of Ballyhire Castle and House took place in October 1997 in response to a holiday cottage development around the site.

Two building complexes were identified during the survey, the medieval complex of the tower-house and bawn wall and the post-medieval complex of Ballyhire House with its walled gardens and outbuildings. Five archaeological test-trenches were excavated in the vicinity of the tower-house to establish the line of the bawn wall and to define the area of archaeological potential around the castle.

Ballyhire Castle
There are references to Lamberts at Ballyhire from the 14th century and to a castle from the 16th century (M. Moore, An Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford (Wordwell, 1996)). The surviving remains of the tower-house consist of three walls. The structure appears to have been roughly square, measuring 8.25m east–west and 8.45m north–south (the north wall has been removed and the measurement is based on records within the files of the National Monuments Service). No basal batter is evident on the structure, although a considerable volume of demolition rubble has built up both outside and inside the tower. Evidence for the ground-floor layout and the first floor of the building survives. The remains can be compared with many similar 15th/16th-century castles (H.G. Leask, Irish castles and castellated houses (Dundalgan Press, 1951)). The arrow-loop and embrasure identified in the south wall at ground-floor level can be compared closely with similar arrow-loops in Donore Castle, Co. Meath, and in Narrow Water Castle, Co. Down (McCullough and Mulvin, A lost tradition, the nature of architecture in Ireland (Gandon Press, 1987), 37–8). Both Donore and Narrow Water Castle are simple rectangular tower-houses dating from the 15th/16th century.

The bawn wall appears to be located running east–west and parallel to the south of the castle. Its location suggests that it may be part of an enclosure around the castle. It was traced in Trenches 1, 2 and 3. Areas of coarse cobbling were identified inside the wall in both Trenches 2 and 3, but no significant archaeological deposits were encountered. It must be added that the assessment sought to follow the line of the bawn wall rather than to excavate around the castle, where archaeological deposits are likely to occur. No archaeological features were revealed in either Trench 4 or 5.

Ballyhire House
No trace of the foundations indicating the layout and form of Ballyhire House survives above ground level. Scrub and rubble are present to the north of the castle. The only upstanding evidence for the house is the chimney flue evident in the external wall of the tower-house. The layout of the house and its walled gardens are illustrated on the OS 1:2500 map dated 1903. A mill and a complex of outbuildings were surveyed as part of the assessment.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin