County: Clare Site name: DROMOLAND CASTLE, Dromoland
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 42:63 Licence number: 98E0561
Author: Kenneth Hanley
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 538751m, N 672656m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.801418, -8.908300
It was proposed to construct a 24-bedroom extension to Dromoland Castle Hotel, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare, on an area of raised ground on the south-eastern side of the driveway, opposite the new main entrance. This area consists of a low hillock, ranging from 6.75m OD to 9.74m OD, and is covered in part by trees and shrubbery.
The castle at Dromoland is believed to have originated from a late 15th- or early 16th-century tower-house, for which there are few documentary references. It is mentioned in the will of Murrough O'Brien, in 1551, when he left the castle and lands of 'Drumolune' to his third son, Donough MacMurrough O'Brien.
Four main trenches were dug by mechanical digger. These showed the hillock to be a natural feature, not imported soil as had been previously assumed. Soil cover on the hillock consisted mainly of c. 0.2-0.4m of sod and topsoil over natural, sandy boulder clay. The area at the foot of the hillock produced some depositional and structural activity in the form of pits and deposits associated with landscaping and drainage. Based on the associated finds, this activity appears to have taken place during the 18th/19th century. The outer kerbed paving area of a 19th-century tennis court was also identified, along with other, more modern deposits, many of which were associated with water mains and cabling.
No features of archaeological significance were identified in any of the excavated test-trenches.
44 Eaton Heights, Cobh, Co. Cork
