County: Clare Site name: FALLS HOTEL, Ennistymon
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 15:101 Licence number: 98E0270
Author: Jacinta Kiely, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Castle - tower-house
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 512794m, N 688636m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.941433, -9.297427
Five test-trenches were excavated in the area of a proposed extension at the Falls Hotel, Ennistymon, to comply with a planning condition. The extension is to the north-west of the oldest section of the hotel. The MacNamara family built a Georgian house on the site of Ennistymon Castle, which was the seat of a branch of the O'Brien family. Recent survey work has revealed that much of the medieval tower-house was incorporated into the 18th-century house, which forms the front section of the hotel (Croinin and Breen, The hidden towers, The Other Clare 16 (1992), 5–10.).
Trench 1 was 6m north-south by 1.5m east-west. A stone drain was recorded in the trench; it overlay the natural. Trench 2 was 7.2m east-west by 2.1m. Six shallow layers of modern material overlay a dump of modern household rubbish that overlay a former yard surface; the yard overlay the natural. Trench 3 was 6m east-west by 1.5m; four modern layers overlay the natural. Trench 4 was 4.5m north-south by 1m and 1.2m deep; four layers of sandy silt overlay the natural. Trench 5 was 5m east-west by 1.5m; a layer of sand overlay the natural.
No medieval occupation layers or ancillary features associated with the tower-house, or any archaeological stratigraphy, features or artefacts, were recovered from any of the trenches.
Clover Hill, Mallow, Co. Cork
